"I
have been going through Banco Espírito Santo's half-year 2014 results. They make pretty grim reading. No, actually it's worse
than that. They read like an instruction manual on how to rip off a bank.
I can't work out if the BES management at the time was
stupid, naïve, complacent or criminal. Probably all four. No matter – it has
now been entirely replaced. Well, I say “no matter” - but actually such abysmal
management DOES matter. Those responsible for audit, risk and compliance have
been guilty of incompetence so gross it borders on the criminal. And the former
CEO and vice-chairman, Ricardo Espírito Santo Salgardo – a member of the Espírito Santo family – has been arrested on suspicion of money laundering and tax
evasion. But I suspect he has done more than that: he was also chairman of
ESFG, which – as will become apparent shortly – systematically drained the bank
and its other subsidiaries. If he didn't know what was going on, he was
incompetent: if he did, then he was a party to corruption and fraud on a simply
massive scale. Exactly how massive is not yet clear. But I think we are talking
billions of Euros."
