PORTUGAL’S PRESIDENT Cavaco Silva has denied any link whatsoever with failed bank Banco Português de Negócios.
At the end of a week in which the bank’s former founder and CEO José Oliveira e Costa was arrested at his home and charged with massive fraud, the President took the unprecedented step of stating that he didn’t “owe a single Euro to any banks, either national or international.”
Cavaco Silva is said to be furious that his name is constantly being linked to a number of financial irregularities at BPN which the government was forced to step in and nationalise earlier this month after a black hole amounting to nearly one billion euros was discovered.
The insinuations, which are viewed as being political, led to the President’s Office issuing an official statement over the weekend denying outright the “lies and insinuations” which were putting his “good name as Head of State at risk.”
As the BPN saga has unfolded in the past few weeks a number of high profile figures have been targeted as being involved in financial scams.
Four ex-PSD party leaders Dias Loureiro, Miguel Cadilhe, José Oliveira e Costa, and Rui Machete have either had business or administrative links with BPN.
Miguel Cadilhe, President of BPN until its nationaliSation, was a one-time Minister of Finance under the Cavaco Silva government while José Oliveira e Costa, who is now under lock and key, was Secretary of State for Financial Affairs.
