The Committee for Finance and Admin is not happy with the written replies from Miguel Relvas about the Efisa Bank affair and wants him to come in person to explain himself.
The Efisa investment bank was sold in 2015 for €38.3 million to a company of 'Angolan and Portuguese investors' approved by the Bank of Portugal.
Before Efisa was sold, the State pumped €90 million of taxpayers’ cash into the ailing bank - part of Banco Português de Negócios which already had been bailed out by the taxpayer.
The company that bought Efisa was Pivot SGPS and a 'consultant' to both Efisa and Pivot SGPS was Miguel Relvas, the disgraced former minister from the time of the Passos Coelho coalition government.
Miguel Relvas was a shareholder of Pivot but the Bank of Portugal was told at the time of the Efisa sale that the shareholders in Pivot were Aethel Partners, Ricardo Santos Silva and Aba Schubert, Mário Palhares and António Bernardo.
Relvas may have become a shareholder after the deal went thorough but if so, the Bank of Portugal would need to have authorised any such change. If Relvas was handed shares in Efisa as a completion bonus, he is in deep trouble. If he purchased the shares, was this at market rates?
Relvas at that time was the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and so was called to appear before the parliamentary committee to explain his role in the sale of Efisa and his involvement in Pivot SGPS.
The committee wants him to appear in person this time as his written answers to their earlier questions were at best evasive with Socialist MP João Paulo Correia adding that Revas, “replied but did not respond” to the questions asked.
Correia added that, "Miguel Relvas can not continue to flee from parliament and must provide all the information requested about suspicions over his involvement in a business that seems like more of a racket."
Relvas was part of a government that agreed the €90 million finance package for a bank that then was sold off for €38 million and from which Relvas benefitted financially, alledgedly.
Relvas claims in his defence that he was not in charge and had no involvement in the sale of Efisa:
"I was not responsible for the Efisa privatisation process," wrote Relvas, adding that state companies Parvalorem and Parparticipadas, who owned and sold Efisa come under the Ministry of Finance.
Former Secretary to the Treasury, Isabel Castelo Branco, agreed to appear before the committee and gave quite a different opinion as to what went on at the time of the Efisa sale, hence the committee now wants to interview Relvas as soon as possible but he is under no legal obligation to appear.
Castelo Branco was heard by the committee and said of the capital injection that she considered that the money and the subsequent sale of the bank was a solution that "better safeguarded the public interest," since liquidation would have cost more.
The committee also may call the former PM Pedro Passos Coelho to answer some questions.
Passos Coelho and Relvas are old friends, with the former PM spending time over the years in ensuring Relvas has comfortable and well-remunerated positions at the taxpayers’ expense while continuing to lie and cheat his way through a career marked by shady dealings and less than clear explanations.
As suspicions over the sale grew, two Pivot shareholders sent written threats to MPs as Schubert Aba and Ricardo Santos Silva, wrote a letter to João Galamba and João Paulo Correia.
The letter warned the MPs that they must be careful not to make ‘disturbing statements or insinuations’ about the sale of Efisa Bank so as not to cause damage to Pivot.
"Aethel sent a letter that concludes with a threat of the consequences of our work as MPs and in ascertaining the involvement of Miguel Relvas in the sale process," explained João Paulo Correia in February this year.
Comments
Like it or not, all the comments are correct - and the situation is blindingly obvious, no?
Mildred calls this farce "international standards of Bank Regulation", but in truth, Portuguese are using a system perfected by the USA and Britain.
Then we learn again of the Baron of Tomar - Mr Turf. Running that Municipal before reaching upwards for national glory. Popping his head briefly out of yet another Portuguese swamp. And realise that there are thousands of identical Relvas's up and down Portugal. He was just one of the more succesful. All Teflon coated from prosecution, not because they have been well behaved but because no-one can 'dob them in' without the risk of being investigated themselves. Their own skeletons dragged out into daylight. If using the international standards of Bank Regulation, and knowing now that so many Relvas's are still in Portuguese banking - can anyone seriously call this 'control'? Or just more pretend and extend?
BES and its offshoots showed us the other way and many hundreds of employees and directors over the years must have been fully aware of irregularities if not outright frauds and corruption - but kept quiet. Until a foreign Banking Regulator had had enough.
As Portugal is allegedly still a European Union member country - not exactly a healthy signal to investors into the EU.