O Último Banquiero
July 31, 2014 8:42 PM Subscribe
Banco Espírito Santo, Portugal's second largest bank by assets held, was nationalized "through the back door" several days ago after the shocking revelations of money laundering and tax evasion by the bank's founding family which had become public over the past few months caused the bank to post a recordbreaking loss of 3.6 billion euros.
The Espírito Santo family is one of the last of Europe's great banking families, having founded their empire in 1869, remaining neutral with their country through WWII, and surviving the 1974 'Carnation' army coup which caused the family to flee after the bank was nationalized.
Ricardo Espírito Santo Silva(Google Translate), once known as DDT (short for Dono Disto Tudo or 'owner of all of this/all he surveys') and one of the most powerful men in Portugal, has been forced to step down from his position as head of the bank after being arrested for money laundering.
Meanwhile, the rest of the European banking industry reacted poorly amid concerns that the Portuguese central bank had insisted that BES was fully capitalized for several months until the extent of the losses became clear only days ago.
The ongoing issues have caused Oi, a Brazilian telecom company in the process of merging with Portugal Telecom (which had debt exposure to an Espírito Santo subsidiary, Rioforte), to miss out on an auction for 4G licenses that will likely severely diminish the company's ability to compete in the Brazilian telecom market in the future.
The Oi story highlights the very complicated nature of the Grupo Espírito Santo and the role of the Espírito Santo family in the Portuguese economy.
The Espírito Santo family is one of the last of Europe's great banking families, having founded their empire in 1869, remaining neutral with their country through WWII, and surviving the 1974 'Carnation' army coup which caused the family to flee after the bank was nationalized.
Ricardo Espírito Santo Silva(Google Translate), once known as DDT (short for Dono Disto Tudo or 'owner of all of this/all he surveys') and one of the most powerful men in Portugal, has been forced to step down from his position as head of the bank after being arrested for money laundering.
Meanwhile, the rest of the European banking industry reacted poorly amid concerns that the Portuguese central bank had insisted that BES was fully capitalized for several months until the extent of the losses became clear only days ago.
The ongoing issues have caused Oi, a Brazilian telecom company in the process of merging with Portugal Telecom (which had debt exposure to an Espírito Santo subsidiary, Rioforte), to miss out on an auction for 4G licenses that will likely severely diminish the company's ability to compete in the Brazilian telecom market in the future.
The Oi story highlights the very complicated nature of the Grupo Espírito Santo and the role of the Espírito Santo family in the Portuguese economy.
Well there is a small but growing possibility that they will get eaten.
posted by CautionToTheWind at 2:19 AM on August 1, 2014
posted by CautionToTheWind at 2:19 AM on August 1, 2014
There is precedent...
o ultimo banquete?
posted by Naberius at 6:06 AM on August 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
o ultimo banquete?
posted by Naberius at 6:06 AM on August 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
This was a great post. Slowly digesting that massive Observador excerpt.
posted by pmv at 6:58 AM on August 1, 2014
posted by pmv at 6:58 AM on August 1, 2014
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posted by Vibrissae at 9:46 PM on July 31, 2014 [2 favorites]