Just as Novo Banco – the good bank that rose from the disaster of BES – announces it has sold BESI (Banco Epírito Santo International) to Chinese financial services company Haitong, former BES boss Ricardo Salgado is preparing to face MPs in parliament.
It promises to be a very hot day for the commission convened to establish “the truth of the facts” into the €3.6 billion banking scandal over which Salgado remains on €3 million bail.
As national tabloid Correio da Manhã writes today: “Where is the money?” is one of the many questions MPs will want to see answered tomorrow morning – along with “more precise explanations on the financial schemes” behind companies within the Espirito Santo empire.
Salgado’s positioning in the parliamentary hot-seat comes ahead of any court case, and on the same day his estranged cousin José Maria Ricciardi is also due to be questioned in the afternoon.
Meantime, in Luxembourg, the commercial court has finally declared BES subsidiary Rioforte bankrupt.
The decision follows the Luxembourg court’s rejection of a controlled management application for the company, whose main creditor was Portugal Telecom which lost €900 million in the labyrinthine financial scandal.
