Four years since their trial started, over eight years since the banking fraud was discovered, BPP’s former top men, principally João Rendeiro, Paulo Guichard and Salvador Fezes Vital, have all been found guilty and handed jail terms. But the likelihood of them serving any time at all is remote. Say reports, all the men will see the sentences ‘suspended’ in exchange for donations to social solidarity institutions.
The amounts vary, according to the severity of the sentences.
Thus, Rendeiro is expected to stump up €400,000, while those with lower sentences stand to get away with a great deal less.
How this sits with the general public – bearing in mind that BPP’s collapse took €41 million with it – remains to be heard and/ or read about in national papers.
All five defendants were found guilty of various crimes of falsification, with sentences published on Monday.
And how the news really affects Paulo Guichard has not been mentioned.
Earlier this year Guichard was reported to have left the country for Brazil, avoiding a million euro fine over the scandal (click here).
Information of the time suggested that both Rendeiro and Fezes Vital were unable to pay their own fines, imposed by the Bank of Portugal.
Thus how donations can now be found to pay social solidarity institutions remains something of a mystery.
Tabloid Correio da Manhã writes that Judge Emília Costa justified Rendeiro’s heaviest fine because of his “elevated lifestyle” and the fact that he lives in a luxury condominium in Cascais (Quinta Patiño).
The paper stressed that Rendeiro was not in court to hear his sentence and may well end up putting in an appeal.
