The Espírito Santo Financial Group, part of the troubled Espirito Santo family empire, has filed for bankruptcy after its request for protection from creditors in a Luxembourg court failed last Friday.

The Espírito Santo Financial Group, part of the troubled Espirito Santo family empire, has filed for bankruptcy after its request for protection from creditors in a Luxembourg court failed last Friday.

In a filing with creditors on Thursday, the group said that its subsidiary Espírito Santo Financière had also filed for bankruptcy.

“It is expected that the Luxembourg district court sitting in commercial matters will pass a bankruptcy order and appoint one or more receivers over the estates of ESFG and ESFIL in its hearing on Friday 10th October 2014,” the bank said in a statement.

The move follows the decision of the Luxembourg district court on 3 October which turned down turn the group’s request made in July for creditor protection.

The bank said that Espírito Santo International and subsidiary Rio Forte Investments had also requested protection from creditors.

The Portuguese government announced on 3 August that it was stepping in with a €4.9 billion ($6.44 billion) rescue plan to rescue Banco Espirito Santo, which was previously owned by Espírito Santo Financial Group, after it posted a first half loss of €3.6 billion. As part of the bailout the Portuguese lender was shut down and its healthy assets transferred to a new bank called Novo Banco.

Banco Espirito Santo Group, which is headquartered in Luxembourg, has been plagued by scandal in the past year. In July, Ricardo Espirito Santo Salgado, stepped down as chief executive. Following this, he was arrested for alleged tax fraud and money laundering after an audit conducted by Portugal's central bank found a number of financial irregularities at the firm.

Last month, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority initiated bankruptcy proceedings against Banque Privée Espírito Santo, the Swiss private banking subsidiary of Espírito Santo Financial Group. The Dubai financial services regulator also restricted the ability of a local subsidiary of Espirito Santo Group to take or pay any deposits to protect its clients as the fallout from the collapse of the lender continues.