BES pre-trial phase postponed until March 29
According to a judicial source, this postponement is related to the health reasons of the investigating judge Ivo Rosa, who will preside over this phase.
The start of the pre-trial phase of the BES/GES case, which was scheduled for Monday afternoon, in the Central Court of Criminal Instruction, in Lisbon, has been postponed to March 29, a judicial source told Lusa.
According to the same source, this postponement is related to the health reasons of the investigating judge Ivo Rosa, who will preside over this phase.
The case has 30 defendants (23 people and seven companies) in 361 crimes.
The most high-profile defendant in this case is the former chairman of the Espírito Santo Group (GES), Ricardo Salgado, accused of 65 crimes, including criminal association (one), qualified fraud (29), active corruption (12), money laundering (seven), forgery of documents (nine), and market manipulation (two).
Considered one of the biggest cases in the history of Portuguese justice, this case brings together in the main case 242 investigations, which have been joined, and complaints from more than 300 people, individuals and companies, living in Portugal and abroad. According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP), whose indictment ran to around four thousand pages, the collapse of the Espírito Santo Group (GES) in 2014 caused losses of more than 11.8 billion euros.
Other defendants are Morais Pires, José Manuel Espírito Santo, Isabel Almeida, Manuel F. Espírito Santo, Francisco Machado da Cruz, António Soares, Alexandre Cadosch, Michel Creton, Cláudia Boal Faria, Pedro Cohen Serra, Paulo Carrageta Ferreira, Pedro de Almeida e Costa, João Alexandre Silva, Nuno Escudeiro, Pedro Góis Pinto, João Martins Pereira, Paulo Nacif Jorge, Maria Beatriz Pascoa, Frederico Ferreira, Luís Miguel Neves, Rui Santos and Alexandre Monteiro.
The seven companies accused are Espírito Santo Internacional, Rioforte Investments, Eurofin Private Investment, Espírito Santo irmãos – Sociedade Gestora de Participações Sociais, ES Tourism Europe, Espírito Santo Resources Limited and ES Resources (Portugal), for the crimes of qualified swindling, passive corruption, falsification of documents and money laundering.
(Article last updated 10h59 am)
