"There was a complete and incomprehensible lack of professionalism", according to the lawyers acting for Pharol, previously named Portugal Telecom.
The Lisbon Commercial Court was treated to a range of accusations made against against the former directors of Portugal Telecom SGPS, Henrique Granadeiro (pictured) and Morais Pires who was the Banco Espírito Santo board nominee, and Luís Pacheco de Melo the former PT finance director.
The document submitted for the court’s perusal added that there was a gross violation of a range of legal and contractual rules when the loan of €897 million was granted by PT to the Grupo Espírito Santo property company Rioforte.
This holding company was part of the main non-financial businesses of the Group which failed to repay any part of the PT loan and eventually was declared insolvent in October 2014 which caused a catastrophic and sustained fall in the PT share price.
Pharol is looking for compensation of a figure corresponding to the difference between the €897 million loan and the value that Pharol will receive from the sale of Rioforte’s assets.
Henrique Granadeiro whose leaving speech was memorable for his comment, ‘I only acted in the best interests of the company,’ has tried to pre-empt any personal embarrassment by appointing his own lawyers to action a lawsuit against Pharol as he claims the decision taken at the last AGM, when shareholders approved a motion to take him to court, should be declared null and void due to some arcane procedural niceties.
Zeinal Bava, (pictured below), another former PT Chief Executive, was not mentioned in the court submission today as there is no record of his signature or any email linking him to the disastrous loan.
Bava previously has denied any knowledge of the loan taking place even though many find it strange that he therefore was blissfully unaware that the PT bank account was €897 million light.
The court submission today reserved Pharol’s right to include others, including ‘directors for the period 2012/2014’ and Deloitte, PT’s auditors at the time the loan took place.
