This Monday, the Lisbon Criminal Court put on trial the former president of Banco Espírito Santo Angola (BESA), Álvaro Sobrinho, banker Ricardo Salgado and three other defendants, fully confirming the prosecutor’s accusations.
The decision to investigate the BESA process was read by investigator Gabriela Lacerda Assunção at the Central Criminal Court in Lisbon.
During the investigative debates held on June 3, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), through the voices of prosecutors Rita Madeira and Sandra Oliveira, demanded that the five defendants be tried “according to the exact charges.”
Former Angolan banker Alvaro Sobrinho is charged with 18 counts of breach of trust and five counts of money laundering, while former GES President Ricardo Salgado is charged with five counts of breach of trust and one count of fraud.
A former Angolan banker is suspected of embezzling hundreds of millions of euros in a case that took place between 2007 and July 2014.
The other defendants who will stand trial are former administrators Amilcar Morais Pires, accused of breach of trust and another of fraud, Helder Batalha, accused of breach of trust, and Rui Silveira, who is responsible for only one crime of fraud.
The BESA indictment was announced in July 2022 and concerns the provision of BES funding to BESA in the form of interbank money market (MMI) credit lines and bank overdrafts. As a result of this criminal activity, BES was exposed to BESA on 31 July 2014 to a risk of approximately €4.8 billion.
According to the indictment, the benefits obtained from the commission of the crimes charged in this investigation amount to global amounts of 5,048,178,856.09 euros and 210,263,978.84 US dollars.
According to the DCIAP, in addition to “the amounts unlawfully debited from BESA accounts registered with BES in Lisbon to corporate entities acting in his personal interests, Álvaro Sobrinho also used the liquidity available in these two banks on several occasions to cover the payment of expenses for the purchase of goods and for the direct financing of the activities of other companies belonging to them.”
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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