Victims of Portugal’s largest private bank collapse want compensation
The association fighting for compensation for the victims of Portugal’s largest private bank collapse almost 11 years ago have issued an ultimatum to the incoming government – whatever government it turns out to be.
ABESD— standing for the Association for the Defence of Bank Customers — wants a fund created to compensate the many hundreds of victims. As it points out, the money is there: it has already been ‘seized’ by public prosecutors from those held criminally responsible for the bank’s failure.
If the next government fails to create a fund, ABESD will have no alternative but to file a complaint with the European Commission against the Portuguese state.
Speaking to Lusa today, ABESD president Francisco Carvalho stressed that as things stand at the moment, the state is not complying with the European directive that provides for financial compensation for victims.
One solution is for the fund to be financed by the assets seized in the BES/GES criminal case. These assets include cash, property, works of art and shares in companies valued in excess of €5 billion, when, in terms of victims’ losses, ABESD is just trying to secure €300 million.
ABESD is very critical of the way legal proceedings are being conducted regarding the treatment of the victims, considering above all that the Public Prosecutor’s Office is not doing what it should to defend them and is acting “as if the assets seized from the defendants could be retained for total loss in favour of the Portuguese state alone”.
In the criminal proceedings (the trial began in October 2024), thousands of aggrieved clients applied for the status of victims of financial and moral damage, and around 2,000 of them were granted this status.
However, despite this, ABESD says that the justice system “fails to offer material justice” and cannot be content with convicting those responsible: it must provide material compensation to all victims.
ABESD has recalled the Bernard Madoff case in the United States, noting that the Department of Justice took proactive measures to ensure the restitution of assets to victims even before the sentence was handed down.
Thus, Portugal’s approach amounts to a further victimisation of those who often lost their entire life savings: they were victims of BES, then of the decisions of the Bank of Portugal and now they are victims of the courts.
The resolution of BES on August 3, 2014 caused losses to shareholders and debt holders, from small investors to large investment funds (such as Blackrock and Pimco).
Of all these, the most vocal were customers who had purchased commercial paper/ debt from Espírito Santo Group companies at BES (Banco Espírito Santo) branches. They staged dozens of demonstrations over the years – and due to this public pressure, solutions were negotiated, but only a few were implemented, leaving some victims completely out in the cold, and desperately out of pocket.
Source material: LUSA
