Africa-Press – Angola. The judge of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court, Anabela Valente, was yesterday prevented from authorizing the reading of the statements that the former director of Delta Imobiliária, Paulo Manuel Rodrigues Cascão, made during the procedural investigation phase by the defense teams of generals Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias, former head of the Military Household of the former President of the Republic, and Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento, former consultant to the same body.
Lawyer Bangula Quemba warned the panel of judges and prosecutors that such statements could not be read because Paulo Cascão had made them as a defendant and not as a declarant, since at the time he was heard he was being identified as a participant in the alleged scheme that allegedly caused enormous financial losses to the State.
To support his thesis, the lawyer, who represents General Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento, argued that, as a legal imperative, the court cannot validate the statements that a person gave as a defendant, at a time when he is being heard as a declarant.
He said that the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP), when preparing the indictment, included the former director of Delta Imobiliária among the defendants facing charges of fraud, document forgery, criminal association, abuse of power, embezzlement, money laundering and influence peddling.
However, the judge of the Criminal Chamber of this court who prepared the indictment ended up disproving him, that is, removing him from the crimes of which he was accused, considering that there is evidence that he did not commit such crimes, and therefore changed his status from defendant to declarant.
Lawyers João Amaral Gougel and Benja Satula, representing General Kopelipa and the companies Plansmart International Limited and Utter Right International Limited, respectively, agreed, stressing that, if it proceeded in this way, the Supreme Court would be violating the Penal Code provision that prohibits such an act.
The presiding judge, Anabela Valente, granted the defense’s request and instructed the court’s secretariat to create the necessary technical conditions for Paulo Cascão to be heard remotely at the next hearing on the 18th, as he resides in Portugal. In addition to the two generals and the aforementioned companies, this case, registered with the Court under No. 38/2022, includes as defendants lawyer Fernando Gomes dos Santos, the company China International Found, and Chinese citizen Yiu Haiming. Contrary to what happened during the phase in which the case was under the jurisdiction of the Attorney General’s Office, the Court decided not to call upon its Portuguese counterpart to hear him, as this is a bureaucratic process that could further prolong this phase of discussion and evidence production.
The statements made by Paulo Cascão in the case were collected by the Portuguese Judicial Police, at the request of the Attorney General’s Office of Angola, through a letter rogatory.
Alleged embezzlement of more than 200 million involving Delta Paulo Cascão became a fundamental piece of this process due to the fact that the MP pointed out that the company he ran, Delta Imobiliária, participated in a “reimbursement contract” scheme that would have made it possible to embezzle more than 200 million dollars from the State, through Sonangol Imobiliária, a subsidiary of the national oil company.
According to the indictment, the company Delta Imobiliária is owned by engineer Manuel Vicente and generals Kopelipa and Dino, through the A4 group, in which they are represented by citizen Isménio Coelho Macedo, and its sole administrator was Paulo Cascão.
The indictment also states that the scheme began with the transfer of ownership of the properties, allegedly built with public funds, to the company China International Found (CIF) Hong Kong, represented in the act by the company Delta Imobiliária, under the guidance of Manuel Vicente, to the detriment of the Angolan State.
The aforementioned contract thus transferred ownership, coordination, and management of the housing project to the aforementioned company. This was the first agreement concluded by the two entities involving Sonip, which harmed the State.
“The contract falsely states that China International Found Hong Kong, on behalf of Sonip Limited, built the six buildings with its own funds, worth 207 million, and that Sonip should return the funds spent, which they called the reimbursement contract,” the document reads.
However, as stated in the procedural document supporting the trial, the State paid the amount demanded of it to CIF Hong Kong, which, in turn, transferred the aforementioned property to Sonip Limited, based on the aforementioned reimbursement contract, in 2011. In the same year, the parties sat down again to sign a new contract involving the same buildings and a slightly higher price: 268 million, 347 thousand and 200 dollars.
According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, this second contract consisted of reimbursement for the construction costs of 18 buildings, with a total of 216 apartments, as well as social facilities and public infrastructure, specifically, two clubs, four swimming pools, and parking spaces. This situation meant that in 2013, when Delta Imobiliária sold apartments to the general public in the Sequel, Kilamba, Km 44, and Zango 0 neighborhoods, there was a discrepancy in the allocation of the funds raised. The apartments sold in Zango 0 were not owned by the state, but by CIF Hong Kong.
“The company CIF Limited appropriated the 24 state buildings, built by the company Guangxi, in the central area of Zango 0, hired the company Delta Imobiliária, which sold them to Sonangol EP, through Sonip Limited, under the guidance of engineer Manuel Vicente, for the total value of 475 million, 347 thousand and 200 dollars”, details the accusation.
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