Novo Banco said that it had hired international detectives to investigate the fortune of a defaulting client after he made a "gigantic loss” on a loan to buy BCP shares.
José Rodrigues de Jesus and Bracinha Vieira, the two members of the commission responsible for monitoring the management of the assets of Novo Banco, were heard on Wednesday morning in Parliament by the Budget and Finance Committee.
Bracinha Vieira said that the committee had asked Novo Banco if it would be possible to hire international detectives to investigate the fortune "of a particular customer.”
"To my surprise, we have already hired a firm, but so far there has been no effect," said Vieira, adding that there were assets and money in Brazil and the United States.
Also the chairman of the Novo Banco committee, José Rodrigues de Jesus, corroborated that the bank, "has already gone after people to see what they have in North America and in Brazil."
According to José Rodrigues de Jesus, the debt situation he encountered at Novo Banco was worse than he had imagined, stating, "I knew what was coming and knew it was bad, I did not any idea that it was so bad."
Bracinha Vieira said that in 2005 and 2006 there was a "huge" loan from BES for the purchase of BCP shares and that this operation led to a "giant loss" for the bank because the guarantee was a pledge of BCP shares, which since had dropped by 96%.
He also spoke of guarantees that BES gave to foreign contractors in Algeria, Bolivia, Benin and Congo, where the bank, "had to honour the guarantees" thus losing a boat load of money.
There are also losses linked to events at the Espírito Santo Group, which created "angry and indignant" investors.
Bracinha Vieira said that there were companies that, due to losses, "decided to do everything not to pay back loans to Novo Banco.”
On March 1st this year, Novo Banco announced that it was to request a new capital injection from the Resolution Fund of €1.149 billion to cover losses on these bad credits and overvalued properties, as per the agreement when the bank was sold to the US vulture fund, Lone Star, in October of 2017.
This mechanism means that Novo Banco can request up to €3.89 billion up to 2026 to meet capital requirements and losses on assets that it had been left with from BES.
Ricardo Salgado's successor at Banco Espírito Santo, later Novo Banco, Vítor Bento, considers that the initial assessment that the bank would need €4.9 billion, was poorly done and that the assets were overvalued.