The company which advised the German consortium on the sale of submarines to Portugal transferred over €20 million to ‘unknown bank accounts.’
In the space of six months Escom UK, which was owned by Banco Espirito Santo Group, and was advisor to the consortium that sold the German submarines to Portugal, transferred €20.2 million to two mysterious bank accounts.
The two transactions were contained in a document in the records of the investigation by Portugal’s Central Bureau of Investigation and in the records of the lawyer Bernardo Ayala who formerly represented the state in the submarine transactions.
The damning documentation was submitted in June 2012 having been unearthed by Inteli in its investigations into the submarines affair. Inteli’s report was dismissed as biased by the judges in the case who last week acquitted all those accused of corruption and of accepting dodgy payments.
According to these vital documents the first bank transfer was made on 29 December, 2004 when 'Escom UK received a payment from Ferrostaal at its account at BES in London in the amount of €21.3 million.'
The next day 'Escom UK transferred €19 million to an unknown account with a transaction reference - BES Cayman account.’
'On July 4th 2005 Escom UK received €1.2 million from Ferrostaal' and 'the next day Escom UK transferred €1.2 million to an unidentified account with BES with a transaction reference ‘Escom.’
None of this was accepted as evidence in the submarine trial which collapsed last week.
The judges ruled that the evidence collected by Inteli since 2006 was biased against the defendants, which it would be if it led to the conclusion that they may have been in receipt of part of the €21.2 million that has been transferred to destinations unknown.
