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The lawyer for thousands of BES victims, Nuno Silva Vieira, warned the court on Tuesday about the slowness of the process since the collapse of the Espírito Santo Group in 2014, highlighting that more than 100 victims died without recovering their money.
“The assets seized, even by process, only exist because thousands of people suffered the atrocious consequences of various crimes. More than 100 of my clients have died during this process. They are victims who left without justice being done, without their rights being duly recognized,” stated the representative in the introductory statements held in the first session of the process at the Central Criminal Court of Lisbon.
Salgado’s defense: “The court is obliged to carry out an expert opinion under penalty of annulment” of the trial in the BES case
Featured Nuno Silva Vieira that “the main focus must be reparation to the victims”pointing out that the problem of recovering the money lost by the victims of the GES collapse has already been passed on to later generations.
“We are already talking about cases where the third generation of families is now involved in the process, having inherited not only the weight of financial loss, but also the emotional and legal weight of a process that seems endless. (…) 10 years have passed since the collapse of Banco Espírito Santo. To date, the victims have not received any compensation. or justice through the judicial system,” he said.
Protests upon arrival, nine questions from the judge and 28 minutes in the courtroom. Ricardo Salgado on the first day of the trial for the BES case
“What worries us most is that, at this rate, we do not know how many more 10 years it will take until this process comes to an end. And, as we well know, Justice that drags on for decades, that does not respond to the immediate needs of victims, is no longer justice.”the agent added.
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Among the attendees who spoke in the morning session was also the lawyer Ricardo Sá Fernandes, representing a client who lost 20 million euros and who admitted that he had “the greatest reservations” that Ricardo Salgado could be criminally tried for his condition. of health.
In turn, lawyer Miguel Matías, representative of Petróleos da Venezuela (PDVSA), stressed that humanism must be directed at the victims and not so much at the former banker, also highlighting that “someone from the Bank of Portugal should be sitting” at the trial. . .
“It is not acceptable. He closed his eyes at an adjustment he should have made. “We are talking about theft, simple and without financial complexity,” he stated.
The former president of the BES, Ricardo Salgado, is the main defendant in the BES/GES case and is responsible before the courts for 62 crimes, allegedly committed between 2009 and 2014.
Among the crimes charged are one of criminal association, 12 of active corruption in the private sector, 29 of qualified fraud, five of infidelity, one of market manipulation, seven of money laundering and seven of document falsification.
In addition to Ricardo Salgado, 17 other defendants are also being tried, namely Amílcar Morais Pires, Manuel Espírito Santo Silva, Isabel Almeida, Machado da Cruz, António Soares, Paulo Ferreira, Pedro Almeida Costa, Cláudia Boal Faria, Nuno Escudeiro, João Martins Pereira, Etienne Cadosch, Michel Creton, Pedro Serra and Pedro Pinto, in addition to the companies Rio Forte Investments, Espírito Santo Irmãos, SGPS and Eurofin.
According to the Public Ministry, the collapse of the GES will have caused losses of more than 11.8 billion euros.
Source: Observadora
