Africa-Press – Angola. After being dismissed from his post, the previous General Director of ISJ – Institute for Gaming Supervision, Paulo Jorge Ringote (brother of the former Minister of State for Social Affairs Dalva Ringote and current Angolan ambassador to China); despite having been accused of receiving bribes of more than 26 million kwanzas per month from the French company Elephant Bet.
Now he says in his own forums that nothing will happen to him, because he did not eat alone, not only did he receive these amounts but also others that he gave to Francisco Cristovão “Chiquinho” and to Paulo Pombolo, Secretary General of the MPLA. In fact, according to him, it was mainly from “Chiquinho” at the height of his usual arrogance and arrogance that the superior order, according to him issued by Paulo Pombolo, that the company Golden Bet should also be chosen, even though it does not meet all the main requirements, in which both are partners of César de Sousa, husband of Vera Daves, the Minister of Finance, to the detriment of Angolott, candidate of the Sagrada Esperança Foundation, the financial arm of the MPLA itself, this in the last competition held for the license of new gambling operators in 2024. It is important to remember that it was César de Sousa who practically instructed his wife, the Minister of Finance, to appoint Paulo Ringote to the position of General Director of the Institute for the Supervision of Games.
Paulo distributed others to the aforementioned individuals (Chiquinho, Paulo Pombolo and César de Sousa), because in fact, in addition to what Elephant Bet officially declared daily from online bets, because there was no way to change the accounts because payments were made directly via bank accounts, it never declared the daily revenues of 70 to 150 million kwanzas collected at various points with more than 8,000 betting agents, by more than 60 motorcyclists. Thus, the three beneficiaries received more than 100 million kwanzas per week.
Furthermore, numerically speaking, all of those mentioned above have contributed to tax evasion and stolen revenue from the State coffers over the years, to the tune of at least more than 24 billion kwanzas per year (something like USD 24 million at the current exchange rate), resulting from daily cash sales through more than 8 thousand agents, transferred to offshore accounts (in tax havens) of Elephant Bet, in which César de Sousa is a 30% shareholder, of course with the approval and help of his wife, the Minister, in acquiring the foreign currency and respective transfers, most of it through Viva Seguros, of which her husband is a shareholder and CEO, an insurance company that has already been accused of money laundering on other occasions and for different reasons.
Unfortunately, what can be seen is that Minister Vera Daves’ husband does not just appear to be, but exercises great power not only over his wife, but also over the Ministry of Finance itself, with the approval and connivance of those who should be looking after their own party, the MPLA, instead of their own pockets.
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