As the Portuguese media devotes huge amounts of time and space to the ongoing scandal at Grupo Espírito Santo, the world’s economic press is also buzzing, with news of Ricardo Salgado’s arrest reaching all the major news headlines.
Spain’s El País carried a large article on the detention of the patriarch of the Espírito Santo clan, while El Mundo concentrated on the charges of money laundering and fraud.
France’s Le Figaro splashed the story over its website, while the Jornal do Brasil highlighted Salgado’s need to explain the “illegal transfers of fortunes”.
In the US, the Wall Street Journal concentrated on the charges levelled against the banker, as did the BBC and the UK’s Daily Telegraph.
The Telegraph added that Carlos Tavares, the head of Portugal’s CMVM securities markets watchdog said that his regulator “had scrutinised the family’s Espírito Santo Group on various occasions and found signs of possible illegal activity of which it had alerted prosecutors”.
Speaking to a parliamentary committee yesterday, tavares cited what he described as “signs of abuse of inside information and possible crime of confidence abuse”.
Meantime, President of the Republic Cavaco Silva has said: “We cannot ignore that there will be some impact on the real economy.”
