The Public Prosecutor’s Office has charged Joe Berardo with aggravated fraud related to credits amounting to one billion euros. In addition to the charge against the legal entity, Associação Coleção Berardo, two lawyers were also charged.
This information was made available on Thursday on the website of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
“In the inquiry, which originated from a certificate extracted from the so-called CGD process, facts related to the granting of guarantees to CGD, BES, and BCP on 100% of the titles of Associação Coleção Berardo were investigated, within the scope of agreements signed between 2008 and 2012, concerning loans contracted with entities of the Grupo Berardo and not paid, amounting to a total value of about €1,000,000,000 (one billion euros),” the note stated.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office also reports that “through the institution, in 2013, of a simulated civil action, which did not correspond to an actual dispute, the three individuals charged, in joint effort, managed to hinder the creditor banks’ access to the association’s titles and assets, composed of artworks valued at hundreds of millions of euros.”
“The judgment delivered in the said civil action allowed the defendants to approve resolutions in the General Assemblies of Associação Coleção Berardo that were harmful to the property interests of the creditor banks and contrary to what was agreed in the negotiations and contracts signed between 2008 and 2010,” the note further concluded.
The debt situation even led to the seizure of Joe Berardo’s assets, including the art collection. Last year, CGD auctioned the assets of the businessman, who made his fortune in South Africa.
[News updated at 18:19]
