Former manager of Santa Casa: table abandoned business in Brazil and sank 30 million | Holy House of Mercy

Francisco Pessoa e Costa, former manager of Santa Casa Global, a company created to carry out the internationalization process of Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa (SCML), said this Thursday, at the parliamentary committee on Labor, Social Security and Inclusion that the board led by Ana Jorge, now exonerated, when she took office in May 2023, decided to “abandon” all the businesses and in doing so “sank 30 million euros”.

The former manager said he does not question the fact that the new board does not want to continue with the project because it does not recognize its validity, but he does not agree with the way it was done.

“It’s one thing to close the business, it’s another thing to abandon it”, he stated, highlighting that SCML stopped paying the rent for the MCE office and was prohibited from entering and accessing the documentation that the consultancy BDO, which carried out the internationalization audit, says he didn’t receive it. Furthermore, according to Francisco Pessoa e Costa, SCML also stopped paying the accounting company which, in turn, paid for the records system to which it was no longer possible to access, stopped paying the workers and the lawyers sent a letter saying who could no longer continue to represent the company in Brazil for image reasons.

“It was this table that killed the internationalization project”, he stated, thus rejecting that the internationalization project had resulted in a loss of around 50 million euros.

Furthermore, the former manager guaranteed that “there were previous analyses”, with studies and the support of lawyers, of the companies that were acquired and for those that were created.

Francisco Pessoa e Costa also discussed the deal with BRB (Banco de Brasília), from which Ana Jorge ended up giving up, announcing that she had saved 14 million euros.

“The partnership with BRB was an opportunity and a great investment”, he said, ensuring “that the entire process was explained in a letter from the bank’s management”. According to the former manager, it would allow “the creation of around 15 thousand jobs”.

As said, on Wednesday, Ricardo Gonçalves, also former manager of Santa Casa Global, Francisco Pessoa e Costa revealed that there were offers to purchase the subsidiaries in Brazil and that the SCML board did not respond. The same happened with Ainigma holding, the company based in the United Kingdom.

The former manager also spoke about how he was removed from his position. “On November 29, 2023, I became aware of the dismissal” which “was carried out in a rude, arrogant and, in my case, illegal manner”, he said, highlighting that, with regard to the alleged illegality, he has already filed suit in court.