1. Yesterday, searches were carried out by the Judicial Police and the Public Prosecutor's Office involving Novo Banco, KPMG and other entities related to the management of that institution's assets, on the very same day that the Government and the Resolution Fund signed the process for the sale of Novo Banco to the buyer BPCE.
Not only does the sale represent a loss for the State, which, at a minimum (and even with the 1.6 billion euros that the Government says it wants to collect), will amount to more than 6 billion euros in losses, it is even more serious when it occurs in a context of doubt about the legality of a set of asset disposal procedures now under investigation in a wide-ranging inquiry into the bank's management, which the PSD/CDS government cannot pretend to ignore.
2. From the outset, the PCP denounced that handing over Novo Banco to Lone Star, with the mechanism of public guarantees for the bank's assets, even with the supposed supervision of the Resolution Fund, did not in any way ensure the defence of public interest. The risk of debt cleaning, of selling assets at a discount with public guarantees, of assaulting Novo Banco with public funds cover, was evident. This evidence fully confirms the PCP's denunciations of a monumental heist on the Country's resources, carried out with the cover of the PS and PSD/CDS governments, the Bank of Portugal and the European Union itself.
3. The PCP considers that the investigation process now disclosed should proceed, with the allocation of the necessary resources and until all answers regarding the management of assets that may involve losses for the State (including for the Resolution Fund) or for the bank have been clarified. Once it has been proven that the State has suffered losses, those responsible must be held accountable, the transactions reversed and their results frozen and rendered null and void until the State has been compensated for all losses. The PCP reaffirms its commitment to combating this process of misappropriation of public resources and management that is harmful and damaging to the State, denouncing the payment of totally unacceptable bonuses to managers and administrators of Novo Banco for their role in the truly real heist they carried out on the institution.
4. Regardless of the developments and results of the investigation, the opening of the proceedings reinforces the demand for the immediate reversal of the sale of Novo Banco, as proposed by the PCP, as the simplest way to ensure national interest in the administration of the institution.
