Africa-Press – Angola. The 3rd Criminal Section of the Court of the District of Luanda begins, today, the trial of Carlos São Vicente, former chairman of the Board of Directors of the former company AAA Seguros, detained in the Viana Prison, since September 2020, on charges of the crimes of embezzlement, economic participation, influence peddling and money laundering.
According to the indictment, this action injured Sonangol in more than US$900 million. São Vicente is accused of, in the period between 2000 and 2016, having carried out “a scheme of illegal appropriation of shares” of the AAA and of “income and profits produced by the system” of insurance and reinsurance in the oil sector in Angola, thanks to to the company’s monopoly.
Speaking yesterday to Rádio Nacional de Angola, to comment on the trial, analyst José Fernandes said it was a good opportunity to discover the truth.
“This is a very mediatic case. Remembering that São Vicente was arrested on September 22, 2020 and the appointment of the trial for January 26 of this year means that the Attorney General’s Office is working, as is the entire system of Justice, hearing all the parties involved in the accusation against São Vicente, which is related to the crime of embezzlement and embezzlement of Sonangol funds, equivalent to 900 million dollars”, he said.
José Fernandes considered that society is looking forward to the trial because it values the work that the justice bodies have been performing. “Let’s trust in Justice”, urged the analyst, before asking that the accusations against São Vicente not be prematurely judged, because, until proven otherwise, he is innocent. Ivo São Vicente, son of the businessman, also involved in the process, has said that his father was unjustly detained, the same point of view defended by defense lawyers who came to make several requests for release and habeas corpus of his constituent, but without success .
As part of the same process, the National Asset Recovery Service of the Attorney General’s Office seized the AAA buildings, the IU and IKA hotels, located in the country, and the IRCA building, on Rua Amílcar Cabral, in Luanda.
The list of seized goods and assets also includes the minority shareholding, of 49 percent of AAA Activos, in Standard Bank Angola, where the businessman was a non-executive director, as well as the freezing of joint bank accounts with his wife, Irene Neto. Carlos São Vicente accumulated, between 2000 and 2016, the functions of Director of Risk Management at Sonangol and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company AAA Seguros, a company in which the Angolan oil company was initially the only shareholder.
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