Of the more than 700 witnesses listed in this trial, four have already been heard, but none have yet questioned the relevance or even relevance of the questions asked, either by the Public Prosecutor’s Office or by the lawyers representing the attendees and the accused. We had to reach the fifth day of the trial to hear Fernando Ulrich, president of the board of directors of BPI: “What does it matter what they ask me when 18 billion euros have been wasted?” And the astonishment in the room – in which there were only two defendants, Amílcar Morais Pires and Francisco Machado da Cruz – was another of the news this Tuesday.

Less surprising was the testimony of Pedro Queiroz Pereira, whose statement before the Public Ministry was recorded in early 2018, about six months before the Semapa leader died, and heard during the morning. In a two and a half hour recording, there was a lot of criticism of Ricardo Salgado, if it were not for the fact that both were known for their feud that lasted many years.

Ulrich’s indignation: “What is the point of this question?”

The Public Ministry called Fernando Ulrich to understand what happened a few years before the BES resolution, since ESI – Espírito Santo Internacional had a loan with BPI. But the chairman of the board of directors of BPI did not understand the relevance of these issues. And he went directly to the room that shared the astonishment.

The Public Ministry wanted to know, to begin with, what the links were between BPI and the GES companies. But the prosecutor was stopped by Fernando Ulrich who said that, for reasons of his duties, he was not going to answer some questions: “Tomorrow I will file a lawsuit for violation of banking secrecy.” And he continued: “I am not the one on trial, nor is BPI. What is this question for? “Why do I have to justify the operations that BPI carries out or has carried out with its clients?”

Ulrich also received a response from prosecutor Carla Dias: “These are not different questions from those asked during the investigation. “We want to understand the lending relationships with BPI, understand the life of ESI and GES.” Ulrich was not convinced.

And the afternoon session went like this, with more noise than usual, with lawyers commenting on the actions of the president of the BPI board of directors. But the Public Ministry did not give up and continued to ask about BPI’s loan relationships with ESI, accused in this case. However, Fernando Ulrich continued without responding and even left criticism: “We will never get anywhere like this. This is so monstrous. What does it matter what you ask me? [empréstimo de 100 milhões de euros] When did 18 billion euros explode? The answer is yes, but what good is that?” he asked.

The prosecutor tried again, questioning Fernando Ulrich about who ESI’s intermediary was to renegotiate the credit. “I think it was Dr. Salado.” However, Ulrich again criticized this sentence: “I can send it to you tomorrow. This will last for years, what is the difference between sending it today or tomorrow?

GES/BES. Ricciardi quotes the former governor of the Bank of Portugal: “Screw the injured, let’s use the money to cover bad bills”

And not even the lawyers escaped. Miguel Pereira Coutinho, a lawyer who is on the side of the attendees, heard Ulrich’s criticism: “They exploded with more than 20 billion [mil milhões de euros]. “This is something absolutely extraordinary.” “Taxpayers did not and will not pay a single cent.” [a resolução do BES]. It was the shareholders, banks and customers who bought the products. The resolution fund has already allocated €8.3 billion to Novo Banco. If the banks had been forced to reflect in their accounts the loss that this means, this would have wiped out more than a third of Portuguese banks.”

And he insisted again: “I am not going to answer this question. It’s a stubborn question. “I don’t understand what I’m asking with these types of questions.”

“Extraordinarily hard-working, excessively ambitious and a compulsive liar”

For two and a half hours – the equivalent of the morning session – the voice of Pedro Queiroz Pereira, former leader of Semapa, a company that Ricardo Salgado tried to dominate, was heard. And it was precisely why his statement was shown this Tuesday: to show how the former president of Banco Espírito Santo achieved everything he wanted.

Pedro Queiroz Pereira in 2018. “Ricardo Salgado is a compulsive liar” and “he thought he owned the world”

The statement made in 2018, a few months before Pedro Queiroz Pereira died, gave some light to the court by stating that Ricardo Salgado had “good and bad characteristics.” “He is extraordinarily hard-working, but also excessively ambitious – he is capable of killing his father and mother – and his main characteristic is that he is a compulsive liar.”

“You want to convince the interlocutor that two plus two equals five. He can come here and say this piece of paper is black, it’s sick. It is an obvious case in which you say things, you are convinced of what you say and that becomes the ultimate truth.”

In addition to characterizing Ricardo Salgado, Pedro Queiroz Pereira also mentioned that the continuity of António Ricciardi as president of the bank was “completely convenient” for “Ricardo Salgado to do what he wanted at BES.”