Court documents released this month reveal the expiration of two charges of breach of trust against Ricardo Salgado on February 28 and March 8, respectively.
Today marks the expiration of two additional charges of the same crime. However, the Lisbon District Court has yet to issue an official statement confirming these expirations, which would leave the former banker’s list of charges at 52.
The two charges confirmed expired by the court, each carrying a potential sentence of up to three years in prison or a fine, are linked to Espírito Santo International (ESI). One relates to the sale of ESI debt to clients of Banco Espírito Santo (BES), and the other pertains to BES’s payment of debt placed on its clients despite the known potential losses in 2014.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office charged Salgado with 65 crimes in July 2020. However, by the time his trial commenced in October 2024, he faced 62 charges, with two forgery and one breach of trust charges having already been prescribed.
Since the commencement of the BES/GES trial, in addition to the recent expirations, six charges of document forgery have also expired, each carrying a penalty of up to three years in prison or a fine.
Ricardo Salgado continues to face trial for charges of criminal association, aggravated fraud, active corruption, market manipulation, money laundering, document forgery, and breach of trust.
The former BES chairman is one of 18 defendants in this case, in which the Public Prosecutor’s Office alleges that the actions purportedly committed by the defendants, including former BES and GES executives, between 2009 and 2014, resulted in losses of 11.8 billion euros to the bank and the group.
