In the escalating number of actions being lodged by investors “left out in the cold” by the BES good-bank/bad-bank carve up, citizens bureau DECO has now waded into the fray, saying it too is going after the Espírito Santo family.
According to reports in the Portuguese media, DECO has lodged claims against BES, the bank’s auditors KPMG and former bank administrators, including Ricardo Espírito Santo Salgado and other members of his family.
The association is said to be claiming compensation “never inferior to a million euros” for the small investors whose shares were rendered useless by the Bank of Portugal when they were not transferred to ‘good bank’ Novo Banco in the wake of the BES collapse last summer.
DECO’s case is reported to have been lodged in Lisbon’s civil court . It cites no less than 27 former BES administrators, whom it claims were jointly responsible for the devastating losses suffered by thousands.
DECO’s case hinges on the fact that many of those who lost money would have got it out in time if they had known BES was about to be recapitalised.
Steering clear of accusing the Bank of Portugal for the fracas – as other shareholders and lawyers are doing (see: https://www.portugalresident.com/bank-of-portugal-now-accused-of-having-caused-bes-collapse) – DECO claims it has not yet finalised its list of complainants, as it received over a thousand requests for help over the situation in just over a week.
Among BES heavyweights in DECO’s sights are José Manuel Espírito Santo, Manuel Fernando Espírito Santo and José Maria Ricciardi – who remains at the helm at BESI to this day.
All those involved in DECO’s claim acted in bad faith, claim the association, as they “knew their actions were illicit”.
DECO’s bid follows confirmation earlier this week that investment banking giant Goldman Sachs is also gunning for compensation over multi-million euro losses in the controversial carve-up (see: https://www.portugalresident.com/goldman-sachs-limbers-up-for-%E2%82%AC706-million-court-battle-with-bank-of-portugal).
