BES customers in Paris have lost €400 million

Portuguese emigrants living in France are regretting deeply their allegiance to the Banco Espírito Santo brand. Yesterday 250 of them demonstrated in Paris outside a Novo Banco branch which shut for the day as a precaution.

Posters were waved complaining of theft and corruption by BES staff which they say duped them into switching their deposited savings in to ill-fated bonds in Grupo Espírito Santo companies.

Many of these successful expatriate Portuguese have lost everything.

"They robbed us all of our money, me and my husband had everything in BES, €350,000," said one customer, one of many who say they were phoned by BES staff and misled into switching their money into an investment that was claimed to be as safe as their deposits but that would pay a higher rate of interest.

Deposits are guaranteed up to €100,000 if the bank goes bust, but these sneaky investments were described as 'safe' yet had no backing when BES folded last August.

"They called me from Braga, advised me to take all of my money from the savings account and put it into something else claiming to be just as safe, but which yielded more. I put all my money in, even the proceeds from an apartment that I sold, it was all done by phone," said another customer.

All of those present have lived in France for decades yet still had BES accounts in Portugal or in France: "We saved all our lives, we worked hard for this!"

"I left at age seven with my parents. We lived in poverty for a while but worked hard, left povery behind, we saved money and now they have stolen it all. I'm willing to do anything to get my money back, I do not want to go back to being poor," said Maria Adelina, 59, originally from Leiria.

An estimated 4,000 Portuguese emigrants to France say they have been stiffed by Ricardo Salgado’s duplicity when he was chief executive of BES. In total, they had invested about €400 million. Worldwide, there may be as many as 8,000 affected customers whose number can be added to the 2,500 in Portugal who have lost money in this way.

The Bank of Portugal’s regulator Carlos Costa, recently reappointed for another term, amid muffled cries of astonishment from the financial community in Lisbon, has made it clear that he has no responsibility at all for this problem despite his role as financial regulator.

Last Friday, the Bank of Portugal informed those interested in buying 'good bank' Novo Banco that they will not have to repay BES customers who had invested in the so-called ‘safe’ investments.

This further has incensed the out-of-pocket investors based in Portugal whose association said today that "buyers should not believe what the Bank of Portugal says."

"Buyers should believe the word of bank customers, if they want to keep them," said the association head Ricardo Ângelo, adding that the injured BES investors will continue to fight to recover their money and is to present criminal complaints against those responsible for the selling them the risky paper.

Those in Paris may have a longer fight but as many also have nothing left to lose, fight they will despite not one Portuguese regulatory institution or ministry taking even a small portion of blame for this fiasco.

'It’s all the depositors' fault' for being tricked by trusted bank staff and the government aims to get off scott free by selling Novo Banco with no attached liability for the €500 million owed in Portugal, and now it seems many more hundreds of millions invested through overseas branches.

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