Lisbon, Oct. 13, 2024 (Lusa) - The collapse of BES/GES caused heavy losses for shareholders, creditors, and clients. More than 2,000 clients have obtained victim status in court and are demanding compensation.
The resolution of BES on 3 August 2014 caused losses for shareholders and debt holders, from small investors to large investment funds (such as Blackrock and Pimco).
Of all these, the most vocal were the clients who had bought debt from companies in the Espírito Santo Group (namely commercial paper) from Banco Espírito Santo (BES) branches and who, over the last 10 years, have organised dozens of demonstrations. The protests occurred in front of the Bank of Portugal, Novo Banco, the Belém Palace and even in Paris.
As a result of this public pressure, solutions for these victims have been negotiated, but only a few have materialised (such as the partial recovery solution for commercial paper victims). Some customers have not had any solution or who have not accepted the proposed solutions and are still claiming all the money they have lost.
In the context of the BES/GES criminal case - which is due to go to trial next Tuesday and in which BES chairman Ricardo Salgado is the main defendant - thousands of injured clients have applied for victim status, which has been granted and currently covers around 2,000 injured people, a source from the injured parties' defence told Lusa.
Given the legitimacy of this status, they are asking for compensation for being victims of property and moral damage as part of a crime. The amount claimed is at least €300 million, including moral damages.
In mid-August, the victims' association ABESD (Associação de Defesa dos Clientes Bancários) regretted that, 10 years after the collapse of GES/BES, no concrete measures had been taken to protect the victims and considered that this reinforces the feeling that the judicial system “fails to offer material justice”.
In a statement, the victims' association called on the Public Prosecutor's Office to mobilise “around solutions that give back to the victims what was taken from them”.
‘Justice is not only done by punishing the guilty but above all by compensating the victims,’ said ABESD, considering that the lack of compensation leads to “questioning the effectiveness of a system that, although rigorous in its investigations, is slow and insufficient in repairing the damage”.
The statement recalled the Bernard Madoff case in the United States, saying that the Department of Justice took proactive measures to ensure that assets were returned to victims even before sentencing.
IM/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
