If the previous day Ricciardi’s siege of Ricardo Salgado was evident, this Friday the idea of ​​the former banker’s “total control” in the universe of Espírito Santo was repeated through the words of José Maria Ricciardi. The injured parties are no longer present in the sessions of this trial – they were only there on the first day – but, according to José Maria Ricciardi, there would not even have been any victims if the Bank of Portugal had chosen another path. On the fourth day of the GES/BES, in addition to criticizing Ricardo Salgado, which was nothing new, Ricciardi focused his attacks and considerations on Carlos Costa.

Ricciardi’s accusations against Carlos Costa

José María Ricciardi was called to testify, but he did not miss the opportunity to talk about the reasons he believes led to the resolution of the Espírito Santo family bank. Although it has no procedural relevance, as it does not involve any of the accused, nor is it a process that affects the falsification of accounts, the participation of the Bank of Portugal and, above all, of the former governor Carlos Costa deserved consideration. .

Ricciardi once again threw responsibility at the Bank of Portugal. For you, the responsibility of solving BES falls on Carlos Costa. “BES was a solid bank. If they hadn’t started making resolutions, BES would be here. That’s why I blame the Bank of Portugal. If the resolution had not been executed and if four or five billion had been lent, BES would have survived and would have been a large bank today. The way the resolution was processed, in my pathetic opinion, cost taxpayers and those affected a fortune, because they wanted to create a clean and They didn’t want to take four or five billion to give to a bank.“.

If it were not for the Bank of Portugal, in Ricciardi’s opinion, there would be no harm done today. In 2014, the idea of ​​Carlos Costa and, consequently, of the Bank of Portugal, was: “Let’s take care of the harmed, because it is not an account that affects the BES, screw the harmed, and let’s move that money to the credits of the accounts that we did wrong at Banco Espírito Santo.”

This Thursday, Ricciardi accused Carlos Costa of having convinced him to remain in the group: “In October 2013, he had gone to the Bank of Portugal to show that he was not happy with the governance from dr. Salty. And the governor asked me not to leave [do banco]so that I could be calm.”

This meeting, however, is not confirmed by the former governor, who assured the Observatory that he consulted his agenda and confirmed that he did not meet with Ricciardi on that date. And he also guaranteed that he had never made any derogatory comments about those injured.

Salgado’s “fear”

At this point in the trial there are still many issues to be clarified and they will be revealed throughout the sessions. One of them was shared by Judge Helena Susano, who presides over the group, after another response from José María Ricciardi. Salgado’s cousin said several times, both in Thursday’s session and in this Friday’s session, that he knew in December 2013 that the accounts had been falsified, but that confirmation only came in May 2014.

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And he added that before December he was already aware that there were problems with the bank accounts. I just didn’t know exactly which ones. But for the collective the question is: if I knew, would I be the only one? And why was he the only one who understood what was happening? Did no one else notice? The answer was given, once again, to show the control that Ricardo Salgado would have in the bank: within the bank, people would be “afraid” of the former banker.

“–But why did you have that clairvoyance that no one else had?

– I don’t know if they weren’t or if they were afraid.

– Afraid of what? When we are afraid, we are afraid of the dark.

– Fear of Dr. Salado.”

The decision not to face his father and Salgado with total control

But it was not only the issue of “clairvoyance that no one else had” that was sought to be clarified in this trial. António Ricciardi, whose 2015 testimony was reproduced this Wednesday before the court, assumed that he signed the documents at a time when the decisions had already been made and, therefore, he tolerated, although he claimed not to know it, the falsification of documents. the documents and with successive ruinous deals for the bank and for those who invested.

If António Ricciardi signed the papers and if his son, who finished his testimony this Friday afternoon, knew that the accounts were not good and even had confirmation, through the document that he claims to have obtained, and that involves the accountant Machado da Cruz , then why did he never ask his father for clarification?

This time it was José António Barreiros, Manuel Fernando Espírito Santo’s lawyer, who asked for this clarification. “When all this happened, didn’t you confront your father?” asked the lawyer for the former member of the bank’s board of directors. And Ricciardi said no.

Although he did not directly say why he did not do it, he immediately gave an example that showed, deep down, the trust and submission that the father, also a result of his advanced age, showed towards Salgado.

“The only thing that hurt me about my father was when, in November, he voted for Dr. Salgado and against me,” Ricciardi added to José António Barreiros, in reference to the meeting that occurred that month. At that time, António Ricciardi had signed a document drawn up by his son to remove Salgado from the board of directors, which had five other signatures. But not only did the document disappear after Manuel Fernando Espírito Santo kept it, but someone told the former president of the BES what Ricciardi’s intentions were.

It is after this document to dismiss the former banker that Salgado ends up telling Ricciardi that he will make his place at the bank available if Ricciardi gives him the vote of confidence in the superior council. “When he assured me that he was going to open the succession, that he was going to retire, I believed him,” Ricciardi said. But that’s not what happened and his father ended up voting against him. Once again, Ricciardi wanted to demonstrate, as happened this Thursday, that Ricardo Salgado “had total power and was not responsible for what he did.”