About 50 customers who bought over-the-counter investments at Banco Espírito Santo branches, today invaded a branch of Novo Banco in Oporto demanding the return of the money they had invested, saying that they had been "cunningly deceived” by the old BES, according to a report on iOnline.
"The people here were extorted. At BES then had a cunning approach from a commercial point of view," said Alberto Neves, one of the out-of-pocked investors, who said the invasion of Novo Banco’s branch had been spontaneous and was a peaceful demonstration.
Marvelling that Espiríto Santo boss Ricardo Salgado was not yet in prison, Neves said that the aggrieved customers "were coerced and deceived" in BES branches. "I have been a customer of the bank for 12 years. We did what they wanted as we trusted the bank."
"Today, here are illiterate, blind and elderly customers with low financial literacy who did not know what they were doing. Branch staff omitted to tell the truth when people subscribed to this financial product. Dr Carlos Costa, the Governor of the Bank of Portugal, knew what was happening at BES.”
Saying that the investors are in possession of facts which show that crimes of fraud and extortion have been committed, Neves said that court is now the only option open.
"There are cases here of elderly people who are surviving on pensions of only €200 or €300, because their life savings were channelled, with cunning and deception, into this type of commercial paper from Rioforte, Espiríto Santo International and Espart, (later to become Espírito Santo Property)," said Neves who believes "in the good faith of the regulators and the rule of law and sovereign bodies" to sort out the mess.
Another demonstrator, José Carlos Nunes said he was joining in the "peaceful protest" and just wanted to see that "justice is done."
"We have received zero feedback from BES and from Novo Banco, and have come here to make our peaceful protest. What we want is that justice is done, that they return the money that was misleadingly, fraudulently and cunningly taken and that they fulfil the promise that was made when BES was divided.”
Carrying protest banners, pensioners Eduardo Gomes and João Martins remained for nearly an hour inside Novo Banco in Avenida dos Aliados, Oporto demanding the return of their life savings.
Last August 3rd, the Bank of Portugal took control of BES, after it has registered half-yearly losses of €3.6 billion, and then announced the division of the bank into the ‘bad bank – BES’ and the ‘good bank – Novo Banco.’
Holders of over-the counter investments in Espiríto Santo companies, marketed as safe products by a desperate BES management, now hold worthless bits of paper in companies that have gone bust or are in administration.
The Bank of Portugal’s early assurances that holders of these investments would be transferred as creditors to Novo Banco, evaporated and the current boss of Novo Banco, Eduardo Stock da Cunha, said expressed 'concern' yesterday and said he would try and find a solution but was under no obligation at all to do so.
The Bank of Portugal has remained silent on the matter hoping it will go away but with 2,500 investors owed €527 million, the bank's early assurance that all was well and everyone would get paid must rank potentially as one of the most expensive promises ever made in Portuguese financial history.
