“The blind ring fencing hurt BES instead of protecting it”, Salgado said during his initial presentation.
After criticising the fact that he only recently learnt about the results of the legal audit into the management of BES ordered by the Bank of Portugal, Salgado referred to various questions that were raised by the audit that pointed towards damaging management and tried to undermine them.
“The only question I was involved in directly was the comfort letters (to investors in Venezuela) But these letters caused no loss of damage to the assets”, he said.
Furthermore, the former banker said regarding “any disobedience in granting credit to GES entities in the health area, such as the Hospital da Luz”, this did not exist because the loans “were repaid” and it was a “renewal of current lines so there was no new loan”.