Portuguese former bank CEO under house arrest

Former president of bailed-out Portuguese bank Banco Espirito Santo (BES) has been put under house arrest and can only leave with authorization from the judge, the prosecutor's office said in a statement on Saturday.

Ricardo Salgado was questioned Friday morning by judge Carlos Alexandre following an investigation into the bank's collapse, known as "Espirito Santo Universe".

Salgado is one of the six people accused of embezzlement, fiscal fraud, corruption and money laundering among other crimes and was held defendant on July 20.

BES, which was the country's biggest private bank, was bailed out in August last year after a first-half net loss of 3.58 billion euros (about 3.94 billion U.S. dollars).

Salgado, who faces the most accusations, which he has always said he would contest, recently blamed the Bank of Portugal for the fall of BES for relying on government support.

The bank was split into a "bad" bank, which houses toxic assets and liabilities, and a "good" bank, which houses viable assets like branches, employees and senior debtors. The good bank is now called Novo Banco. Endit