According to the letter to which Lusa had access, Cavaco Silva wrote a letter to José Eduardo dos Santos on July 25, 2014 "in which he considered it essential that the Angolan Supervisory Authority confirmed publicly and urgently that there was no question of reimbursing the loans that BES had granted to BESA at their nominal value, a letter whose content had been suggested by the Bank of Portugal itself.
"This letter has had no response," writes the former head of state, revealing that it was written in response to "requests from the Government and the governor of the Bank of Portugal," who at the time was Carlos Costa.
Former Portuguese President Cavaco Silva responded to the Parliamentary Eventual Commission of Inquiry into the losses recorded by Novo Banco and imputed to the Resolution Fund using transcripts from his book "Thursday and Other Days", an eight-page document in which he jointly answers questions posed by BE, PS and PAN.
In the section dedicated to BESA, Aníbal Cavaco Silva quotes a passage in which he mentions that at the 10th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), which took place in Dili in July 2014, the vice president of Angola Manuel Vicente said that the credits of BES and BESA were not in question.
"The vice-president of Angola, approached on the subject either by me or by the prime minister [Pedro Passos Coelho], said that BES's claims on BESA were not in question, thus confirming what the governor of the National Bank of Angola would have communicated to the governor of the Bank of Portugal. When I returned to Lisbon I learned that the matter was not resolved after all," Cavaco Silva is quoted as saying in his book.
BESA was one of the issues addressed in BE's questions to the former head of state, and the party questioned whether he "sought or maintained any contact with Angolan institutions about the situation of BESA or the sovereign guarantee on a loan portfolio of that bank.
BES's exposure to BESA between 2008 and 2014 rose from 1.7 billion to 3.3 billion euros, corresponding to 47 percent of BES's own funds at the time of the resolution.
BES's exposure to BESA was covered, until shortly after BES's resolution, by a sovereign guarantee from Angola, signed by the then President of the Republic, José Eduardo dos Santos, whose validity was reiterated by Finance Minister Armando Manuel, but later revoked.
According to a letter from KPMG sent to the commission of inquiry, KPMG Angola obtained "express confirmation of the terms of the sovereign guarantee from the Angolan Ministry of Finance," stating that "responsibility for repayment of a number of credits would be made by the Angolan State" for the net value of debt on 31 December 2013, and that the guarantee was "firm, definitive and irrevocable.
KPMG also says it is "absolutely" unaware of what led to the suspension of the sovereign guarantee announced on 4 August 2014, noting that on 1 August "the National Bank of Angola sent BESA a communication that cannot but presuppose the validity and effectiveness of the guarantee."
According to information provided by KPMG Angola, the estimated value covered by the guarantee could amount to US$3.4 billion, "corresponding to credits totalling US$5.4 billion net of collateral of around US$2 billion."
The original of the sovereign guarantee to Banco Espírito Santo Angola (BESA) was returned to the Angolan authorities following its revocation.
"The original of the guarantee, which was at BESA's premises, was returned to the Angolan authorities, following the revocation of the guarantee in question by the Angolan Finance Minister, communicated to BESA by letter dated August 8, 2014," a letter, which quotes another, sent by César Brito, a former BES board member, to which Lusa had access, reads.
In the document, in response to questions from the PSD, the former head of BES states that he never saw the guarantee and that the bank does not have the annexes to it, referring to the order signed by José Eduardo dos Santos, former Angolan president.
"The doubts and omissions arising from the interpretation and application of this law are resolved by the President of the Republic," he explains.
