LISBON--Former Banco Espírito Santo SA Chief Executive Ricardo Salgado on Thursday dismissed findings from an audit conducted into the bank's collapse that pointed the finger at his administration and accused the country's central bank of leading a smear campaign against him.

In his second public appearance since the bank failed in August, Mr. Salgado told a Portuguese parliamentary commission that the audit ordered by the Bank of Portugal and conducted by Deloitte lacked proof and relevant information for many of its conclusions, which were incomplete and mostly wrong, he said. Mr. Salgado also accused the central bank of releasing only parts of the audit and of omitting four pages of disclaimers from Deloitte about the limitations of the audit.

He repeated many of his statements from his first hearing in December, saying decisions from the country's central bank--and not his management-led to the bank being bailed out and broken up in the summer.

"I will keep defending myself to the end," Mr. Salgado told lawmakers. He said he regretted that people were hurt by the lender's collapse, including clients, shareholders and bank employees.

Banco Espírito Santo's woes were triggered by problems at its parent, Espírito Santo International SA, which was found to be in serious financial trouble after hiding several billions in debt from its accounts. Mr. Salgado, the patriarch of the Espirito Santo family, sat on the board of Espirito Santo International, which has since become insolvent.

Once Portugal's central bank identified Espirito Santo International's problems, in late 2013, it imposed a series of rules to protect the bank, which at that point was a lender to its parent and seller of its debt. Nonetheless, Banco Espírito Santo had to be rescued and broken up in August last year, after reporting high losses over its exposure to Espirito Santo International and related entities.

At the time, Bank of Portugal Governor Carlos Costa said the bank had "developed a fraudulent funding scheme between the companies belonging to the group" to prop up the troubled group.

Mr. Costa then ordered a forensic audit into the bank. The audit, conducted by Deloitte and partly released earlier this month, identified more than 20 instances where Banco Espírito Santo's management possibly broke rules established by authorities to protect the lender from its parent.

For instance, it found that the bank continued to increase its exposure to Espirito Santo entities and it used an "escrow account" opened by Espirito Santo International to reimburse retail clients to pay back non-retail customers, including to repay loans provided by two Portuguese banks.

Mr. Salgado, who has previous denied any wrongdoing, dismissed those findings. He said the bank increased its exposure only to financial entities of the group, which was allowed. He also said the loans given by the two banks were actually used to repay retail clients.

Mr. Salgado said he couldn't comment on another part of the audit, which focused on the bank's Angolan operations, because that was released two days ago.

The audit found serious problems at the internal controls of Banco Espírito Santo, which, for example, allowed it to increase financing to its troubled Angolan unit without formal authorization.

The audit pointed to possible deficiencies in money-laundering controls, and identified instances when money from the bank in Angola was transferred to offshore vehicles whose beneficial owners were Banco Espírito Santo managers.

Three other audit chapters, including one focusing on what Mr. Costa called a "fraudulent funding scheme" are still being completed by the auditor.

The Bank of Portugal and the Portuguese prosecutors' office has opened several investigations into the collapse of the bank and the Espírito Santo group. In parliamentary hearings, several members of the Espírito Santo family said the group had a centralized power in the figure of Mr. Salgado.

Mr. Salgado dismissed that on Thursday. "I don't have everything to do with everything, as it has been suggested many times," he said.

Write to Patricia Kowsmann at patricia.kowsmann@wsj.com

Access Investor Kit for Banco Espírito Santo SA

Visit http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=PTBES0AM0007

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires