By Andrea Hargraves 
Today Bernardo Muniz da Maia will be a man without property or related heritage, according to information he provided to the deputies of the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee on Novo Banco. “In my personal name, I have no private assets. I have a rented car,” Muniz da Maia said, during a hearing in which he was asked to explain the debts of the more than 500 million euros he has in Novo Banco.
Moniz da Maia said he had only had two rental contracts for a car and a credit card, plus the endorsement given to BCP. He said he got “three thousand and a few euros” from one of the companies he runs.
In a hearing marked by numerous instances of memory failure, indecision and an inability to clarify the deputies’ suspicions, Bernardo Muniz da Maya declared that there was “a small account abroad, in Switzerland, arrested by the Brazilian justice” and that he had nothing in his name. From third parties.
Muniz da Maya even claimed he had no company abroad. But he later admitted to being connected to a marine region in the British Virgin Islands after all.
Congresswoman Mariana Mortagua, Moniz da Maia, was confronted with the existence of an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands called Rockville, and the businessman admitted that he was associated with that company, but was owned by a corporation.
He admitted, “I could be an economic benefactor.” “I am not aware of the structure of this at the moment,” he said.
The businessman, who began by saying he was only associated with a corporation, ended up admitting to Mariana Mortagua that he was, after all, associated with two corporations based in Panama.
Bernardo Muniz da Maia rejected the idea of owning a “iron brow”, but admitted that his family had the option to buy back a company that was sold a few years ago in Brazil for 60 million riyals. The Siege member even commented, “Tricks like yours, this committee has already seen it.”
During his time in Parliament, Moniz da Maia did not take his own responsibility for the collapse of Sogema and its companies and the inability to meet their debt service, first with BES and then with Novo Banco.
He defended himself in Parliament: “The Muniz da Maia group has never acted in bad faith. We always intend to find solutions to fully fulfill their obligations.”
At the hearing, he faced either an asset sale in Brazil ahead of a lawsuit involving a company with business in the forestry sector or a capital increase in 2019 in the Portuguese company Euro Yser, which weakened the creditor position of Bank Novo. .
Bernardo Muniz da Maya admitted that in several companies he has as a partner Pedro Teixeira de Mello, one of the entrepreneurs who participated in the 2019 EuroYser capital increase, a process that was the subject of a lawsuit by Novo Banco, for its devaluation. From the guarantees obtained by the bank. He classified him as “well-known,” but it was later revealed that he was a partner in several companies of the family group.
Deputies to analyze the hearing
The responses left a lot of frustration among the deputies. From the PSD, Monica Quintella left a request: “I ask you not to give answers like this,” complaining about elusive answers. Even before, substitute fellow Hugo Carneiro had done the same: “I asked you to be as complete as possible in your answers.” Eduardo Barocco de Melo, from PS, also: “I want an objective answer.”
The Socialist MP who presided over the session, Isabel Onito, wanted to remind Muniz da Maia that, although she did not take the oath, she is obligated to tell the truth. In the end, the attorney ended up saying that what needs to be analyzed in the hearing must be analyzed.
“There were a few clarifications,” he said. There are many failures here in terms of memory as to what has been the subject of the questions raised here. We will analyze this situation. “