BES case doesn’t get off the ground as scheduled; judge calls in sick
INQUIRY || The pre-trial stage of the BES/GES inquiry was due to begin on Monday, over seven years since the banking empire imploded, costing (still costing) the Portuguese taxpayer untold billions.
In true tabloid fashion, the stories were ‘gushing’: the Public Ministry has 10,000 pieces of evidence against Ricardo Salgado, the former head of the empire who has now been rendered incapable of personally responding to charges due to being afflicted by Alzheimer’s disease.
This is the “most complex criminal inquiry in the history of Portuguese investigation”, explains Correio da Manhã – and irrespective of Mr Salgado’s current state of health, he is accused of 65 crimes, one being ‘criminal association’.
Yet Ivo Rosa – the judge in charge of this investigative opus – has suddenly ‘called in sick’.
Público says “there is no date forecast for his return to work”, while Rádio Renascença explains the proceedings have been adjourned until March 29.
All this time could serve to see a number of crimes within this inquiry lapse.
According to some reports, of the 277 crimes identified (attributed to 25 defendants in total), 40 are on track to lapse very soon.
In the case of Mr Salgado, 15 of the 65 crimes levelled against him are equally at risk of hitting judicial time limits and ‘disappearing’ into the ether.
Correio da Manhã recalls that the Public Ministry alerted Judge Rosa to these possibilities last month, in order to impress on him the necessity to move the case along.
But here we are today: nothing is moving along, and nothing is likely to now before March 29 (other than the interviewing of a few ‘new’ suspects).
Rádio Renascença gives much of the background: this case “adds to the main case 242 inquiries and complaints from more than 300 individuals and legal entities residing in Portugal and abroad. According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, whose prosecution accounts for around 4,000 pages, the demise of the Espírito Santo Group (GES) in 2014 caused damages in excess of €11.8 billion”. Add to this the ongoing expenses relating to Novo Banco – the bank that was created out of the
In the case of Mr Salgado, 15 of the 65 crimes levelled against him are equally at risk of hitting judicial time limits and ‘disappearing’ into the ether.
implosion of BES – and the consequences of this banking debacle are still in evidence today.
Judge Rosa has been working exclusively on the BES case, which he concentrated on after his controversial pre-trial deliberation of another landmark case, Marquês (see story on page 12).
No report explains the nature of Judge Rosa’s sudden illness.
JUSTICE || Judge Ivo Rosa didn’t just call in sick on the eve of the opening of the “most complex criminal inquiry in the history of Portuguese investigation” (see story above); he did so after returning a fortune to a member of the banking family involved.
Manuel Espírito Santo has benefited from the decision (taken last Friday but only reported this week) to a tune of around half a million euros, writes Correio da Manhã.
Among assets ‘unfrozen’ by Judge Rosa is a Cadillac, two properties and a €30,000 monthly pension, says the paper.
The Public Prosecutor can appeal Judge Rosa’s decision. If it does, the appeal will be heard by judges at the Lisbon Court of Appeal “who, in the last few years, have annulled various decisions by the magistrate of the Central Court of
Criminal Instruction” (meaning Judge Rosa).
The issue, nonetheless, is the drip-drip undoing of measures taken in the past ostensibly to ensure that ‘victims of BES’ will have some collateral to draw from in the event of ‘guilty verdicts’.
According to CM, the reason behind Judge Rosa’s decision was that he could not identify facts within the Public Prosecutor’s investigation that showed Manuel Espírito Santo was likely to “sell, cede or hide property”, or indeed drain his bank accounts.
As has become predictable with Judge Rosa, he criticised public prosecutors for “not succeeding” in providing this proof.
CM also fills in some of the blanks: Manuel Espírito Santo suffered a stroke in 2019. He has been bedridden – disoriented and unable to make decisions – “depending on the help of third parties in all basic everyday activities” ever since. Due to the seizure of his assets – decreed by Judge Rosa’s ‘opposite number’ at the criminal court, Carlos Alexandre – the added burden of financial difficulties complicates the situation.
According to the Public Prosecutor, Mr Espírito Santo’s alleged criminal activity resulted in losses of “around €4 billion”. The assets initially frozen were already insufficient to guarantee any kind of compensation to victims of the banking debacle … in the event of a future guilty verdict in the trial which has yet to begin.
The time it is taking to get this trial to court has already seen Mr Espírito Santo’s cousin, Ricardo Salgado – the former so-called ‘boss of all this’ – develop Alzheimer’s disease, and thus be in no position to answer questions.