Lisbon, Oct. 16, 2024 (Lusa) - Lawyer João Costa Andrade, who represents four defendants from the BES finance department, said that his clients did not falsify GES accounts or make corrupt deals, reiterating his conviction that they would be acquitted.
In his introductory speech on the second day of the trial in the BES/GES case, at the Lisbon Central Criminal Court, the lawyer for Paulo Ferreira, Pedro Serra, Pedro Pinto and Nuno Escudeiro, from BES's Finance, Markets and Studies Department (DFME), described his clients as the ‘small fish’ in the case and criticised the indictment handed down by the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP).
‘They didn't mislead the BES executive commission or even know it was being misled. The executive commission was not even objectively deceived. They didn't falsify ESI's accounts, they didn't know that the accounts were falsified, and this is what the accusers have written,’ said the lawyer.
‘It's a fantastic fabrication by the accusers. My clients are the ‘small fish’ of the food chain that you see in front of you. They acted lawfully and righteously’.
According to João Costa Andrade, the four defendants ‘never signed any corrupt pact’ and acted between 2009 and 2014 - years in which, according to the Public Prosecutor's Office, ESI (GES's holding company for the financial and non-financial areas) was already insolvent - with the belief that ‘ESI and the other entities were healthy’.
‘Did the defendants know that this technical insolvency existed? The prosecution says no. It reaffirms that they didn't know. But they were called upon, in the words of the accusers, to perform acts,’ he noted, rejecting the MP's argument that the defences were not contesting the facts of the case but rather the interpretation of those facts: ’Perhaps I would urge the prosecutor to read our defence again, which radically do not accept those facts.’
Asserting, by way of example, that the former DFME members did not know the group's organisation chart, João Costa Andrade also demanded time for the defences to present their arguments in the trial with a view to acquittal.
The morning was also marked by the identification of the defendants Isabel Almeida and Cláudia Boal Faria before the court, as they had not been present at the trial's first session.
The former finance director of BES and the former deputy director of DFME refused to make statements at this stage.
The former chairman of BES, Ricardo Salgado, is the main defendant in the BES/GES case and is on trial for 62 offences allegedly committed between 2009 and 2014.
Among the offences charged are one of criminal association, 12 of active corruption in the private sector, 29 of qualified fraud, five of infidelity, one of market manipulation, seven of money laundering and seven of document forgery.
In addition to Ricardo Salgado, 17 other defendants are also on trial, namely Amílcar Morais Pires, Manuel Espírito Santo Silva, Isabel Almeida, Machado da Cruz, António Soares, Paulo Ferreira, Pedro Almeida Costa, Cláudia Boal Faria, Nuno Escudeiro, João Martins Pereira, Etienne Cadosch, Michel Creton, Pedro Serra and Pedro Pinto, as well as the companies Rio Forte Investments, Espírito Santo Irmãos, SGPS and Eurofin.
According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the collapse of GES caused losses of more than €11.8 billion.
JGO/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
