The beginning of the COLLAPSE OF PORTUGAL’S ART markets-ALL HELPED by the SWISS!

The collapse of the Portugueses Espirtos Santo dynasty

 AND HERE STARTS THE COLLAPSE OF PORTUGAL’S ART MARKET

Over nearly 150 years, Portugal’s Espírito Santo clan built a corporate dynasty whose interests ranged from European banks to Miami condos to a diamond mine in Angola. Its current patriarch was nicknamed “Dono Disto Tudo,” or “Owner of All This.”

Now the empire is in ruins. The family’s prized asset and Portugal’s second-biggest bank, Banco Espírito Santo SA, collapsed this month, and Espírito Santo’s main holding companies have filed for bankruptcy amid allegations of accounting problems and fraud.

The scandal has rocked Portugal’s political and business elites and sent shock waves through Europe’s fragile financial markets. Portugal’s main stock-market benchmark has tumbled 22% since Espírito Santo’s crisis intensified early last month. The fact that regulators didn’t spot the company’s problems has rekindled fears among investors that trouble might be lurking in other European banks.

At the heart of the affair lies a small Swiss financial company now called Eurofin Holding SA, which was set up 15 years ago largely to handle financial transactions for the Espírito Santo family and its companies.

Art work and office buildings are being sold by bankruptcy receivers for the Espirito Santo group of companies that collapsed last year amid fraud allegations.

The 36-story Espirito Santo Plaza in Miami went on the block in April after Luxembourg officials managing the bankrupt companies hired Florida’sEXAN Capital to manage the sale. The office and condominium tower, located in Miami’sBrickell Avenue financial district, is expected to fetch at least $120 million based on market prices.

The proceeds of the sale will go to creditors of Espirito Santo International SA, the top holding company of the former Espirito Santo empire that spanned banking, real estate, health care and energy, and its subsidiaries. Espirito Santo Plaza had been owned by Florida-registered Estoril Inc., part of Espirito Santo International subsidiary Rio Forte Investments SA.

Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/espirito-santo-insolvency-receivers-put-art-buildings-up-for-sale-20150416-00884#ixzz3XW8gkcDY

Espirito Santo International also put up for sale a set of paintings at Christie’s in Paris last month. According to Christie’s website, paintings offered by multiple sellers including the Espirito Santo International estate raised EUR2.98 million ($3.18 million) on March 30. A spokeswoman for Christie’s said she couldn’t provide a breakdown by seller.

Portugal’sEspirito Santo family spent decades building a global network of financial and industrial companies under patriarch Ricardo Salgado. The group started to collapse last spring when the Bank of Portugal appointed auditors to review Espirito Santo International’s accounts and found irregularities. A tangle of cross-funding across the group unraveled, leading to the August failure of the group’s prize asset, Banco Espírito Santo SA.

Banco Espírito Santo’s failure is under investigation by the Bank of Portugal, the country’s markets regulator and the prosecutor’s office, which has opened probes for suspected money laundering and fraudulent practices.

Other assets up for sale across the insolvent group include several real-estate projects in Brazil, and a 66% stake in real-estate developer Property Brasil SA, according to documents on the receivers’s website.

Espirito Santo International also put up for sale a set of paintings at Christie’s in Paris last month. According to Christie’s website, paintings offered by multiple sellers including the Espirito Santo International estate raised EUR2.98 million ($3.18 million) on March 30. A spokeswoman for Christie’s said she couldn’t provide a breakdown by seller.

Portugal’sEspirito Santo family spent decades building a global network of financial and industrial companies under patriarch Ricardo Salgado. The group started to collapse last spring when the Bank of Portugal appointed auditors to review Espirito Santo International’s accounts and found irregularities. A tangle of cross-funding across the group unraveled, leading to the August failure of the group’s prize asset, Banco Espírito Santo SA.

Banco Espírito Santo’s failure is under investigation by the Bank of Portugal, the country’s markets regulator and the prosecutor’s office, which has opened probes for suspected money laundering and fraudulent practices.

Other assets up for sale across the insolvent group include several real-estate projects in Brazil, and a 66% stake in real-estate developer Property Brasil SA, according to documents on the receivers’s website.

The Luxembourg court-appointed receivers haven’t publicly said how much the group companies held in assets and liabilities at the time of their collapses. They also haven’t indicated what the ultimate outcome for creditors might be. Alain Rukavina, receiver for ESI and Rio Forte, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The sales come as other Espirito Santo creditors have taken legal action in the U.K. and Portugal over repayment. This week, New Zealand’sSuperannuation Fund and several other funds filed a claim in Portugal against Novo Banco SA, the ” good bank” carved out of Banco Espírito Santo, over a loan made by a Luxembourg investment vehicle to the Portuguese bank. The New Zealand retirement fund, holding notes backed by the loan, is questioning the legality of a decision by the Bank of Portugal to keep the loan in the rump “bad bank” of Banco Espírito Santo where it is unlikely to be repaid.

A Novo Banco spokesman declined to comment.

Junior bondholders in Banco Espírito Santo have also filed lawsuits in Portugal and in the European Union’s general court over actions by Portuguese and European Union authorities in the bank’s August breakup

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