Prosecutors appeal Ricardo Salgado acquittal in BES Brazil corruption case – Portugal Resident

Portugal’s Public Prosecutor’s Office has announced it will appeal the acquittal of former Banco Espírito Santo (BES) chairman Ricardo Salgado and several other defendants in a high-profile corruption case linked to Brazil’s state-owned Banco do Brasil.

The decision, confirmed today by the Attorney General’s Office, comes a day after Lisbon’s Central Criminal Court cleared all eight defendants of charges stemming from allegations that BES paid US$1.8 million (€1.6 million at current exchange rates) through offshore entities to a former Banco do Brasil vice-president in return for a US$200 million credit facility.

According to the prosecution, the payments were intended to influence Allan Simões Toledo to secure financing for BES in 2011 through the International Money Market (MMI). The private Portuguese bank collapsed three years later, in 2014.

Delivering Monday’s ruling, the presiding judge said the evidence — including circumstantial evidence — failed to establish the existence of any corrupt agreement. The court noted that the credit line in question had existed since 2009 and was never fully drawn down by BES.

Judges also rejected allegations relating to dealings involving Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, finding that those accusations had likewise not been proven.

Besides Salgado, those acquitted included former BES Madeira director João Alexandre Silva, former Espírito Santo Group employee Humberto Coelho, former BES/GES officials Paulo Nacif Jorge and Paulo Murta, lawyers Miguel and Sofia Freitas, and their law firm.

Allan Simões Toledo was never charged.

The case concerned allegations of active corruption in international trade, passive corruption in the private sector and money laundering.

Filed in December 2021, it was the first criminal case arising from the collapse of the Espírito Santo Group (GES) and Banco Espírito Santo to reach a first-instance judgment. The trial began in May 2025.

Salgado, once one of Portugal’s most powerful bankers but now well into his 80s and diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, has been declared unfit to stand trial in other criminal proceedings on medical grounds. Nevertheless, this appeal means the BES Brazil case will continue through Portugal’s judicial system, at no doubt some substantial cost, financially and psychologically to all involved.

Source material: LUSA.