Inês Filipe, one of the KPMG partners who appealed the fines imposed by the Bank of Portugal in the BES/BESA case, stressed that the identification of the actual beneficiaries of the loans was not relevant to the auditor and that she only learned that they were different from the borrowers when she learned in January 2014 of the minutes of the BESA General Meeting held on 3 and 21 October 2013.
"Until then, there was no evidence or communication that the borrowers were not the UBO (final beneficiaries)," she said, pointing out that this information was also not relevant to the credit analysis, since the debtor was the borrower and that these were never questioned by BESA's management that began operations in 2013.
Inês Filipe said that BESA's credit portfolio (which led to the issue of a sovereign guarantee by the Angolan state in December 2013) focused especially on providing credit to the real estate sector and to areas in which Angola was betting to achieve a diversification of its economy.
Underlining that BESA was "very prestigious" at the time, the head of KPMG Angola since 2011 stated that the bank was "at the forefront" in financing companies from scratch and projects aimed at diversifying investment, but especially the real estate sector.
Inês Filipe said that BESA's credit portfolio was "young" and "highly concentrated," with a small number of clients, noting that the credit granted increased over 60 percent from 2011 to 2012.
The auditor said that many of the real estate projects that were financed at the time, "of reference" for Angola, "are there today and were financed by BESA.
Inês Filipe said she was "very surprised" by what happened at the BESA General Assembly held in June 2013 (which saw Álvaro Sobrinho leave the board of directors after being replaced by Rui Guerra at the end of 2012).
Underlining that this meeting represented "the greatest revolution within an organization of these characteristics" that she has ever known in almost 30 years of profession, Inês Filipe stressed the fact that at one time "more than 20 key people", i.e. all the directors, except for the accounting one, left.
According to the auditor, in this "atypical" situation all their interlocutors in the bank disappeared overnight, which would have caused serious difficulties to their work if, by that date, the report that left in early August 2013 was not already so advanced.
In her statement, the head of KPMG Angola assured that "it is not true" the Bank of Portugal's accusation that, from 2011 to 2013, it had no information to be able to issue the information it had issued on BESA regarding credit and that from 2014 onwards it became aware of high-value bad debts.
In its January 2019 decision, the Bank of Portugal ordered Inês Filipe to pay a fine of 375,000 euros for breach of the duty of statutory auditors at the service of a credit institution and external auditors to report facts that are likely to determine a reservation to the accounts of the entity they audit.
The trial, which takes place in the auditorium of the Instituto Politécnico de Santarém, concerns the condemnation by the Bank of Portugal of KPMG to pay a fine of three million euros, its chairman, Sikander Sattar, 450,000 euros, Inês Neves (425,000 euros), Fernando Antunes (400,000 euros), Inês Filipe (375,000 euros) and Sílvia Gomes (225,000 euros), all of whom appealed.
The trial started last Thursday with the testimony of the legal representative of KPMG, Vítor Ribeirinho, who concluded this Monday his testimony underlining that, "at the time of the facts", the relationship between the Bank of Portugal and KPMG was "exemplary", so the facts pointed out in the administrative conviction "do not make any sense".
For Vítor Ribeirinho, "it is difficult to understand that the Bank of Portugal admits in this case that it made statements that were not true [allegedly in order not to panic and lead to a run on deposits]. I prefer to believe that, at the time, it provided the correct information to the market," he said, pointing out that KPMG was "in complete agreement" with the positions then announced by the supervisor.
