The EuroBic Board of Directors decided to "close the commercial relationship with entities controlled by the universe of the shareholder Eng.ª Isabel dos Santos and people closely related to it", can be read in a statement released by the bank.
The entity, chaired by ex-Portuguese Minister of Finance Fernando Teixeira dos Santos, made the decision "following the media events raised by the disclosure of reserved information regarding Eng. Isabel dos Santos - presented internationally as Luanda Leaks".
EuroBic also points out "the public perception that this Bank may not fully comply with its obligations due to the fact that Eng. Isabel dos Santos is one of its key shareholders" as a reason for cutting commercial relations.
The bank adds that "payments ordered by the client Sociedade Nacional de Combustíveis de Angola (Sonangol) to Matter Business Solutions respected the formally applicable legal and regulatory procedures" with regard to the prevention of money laundering.
Isabel dos Santos is a 42.5 percent shareholder of EuroBic through its related companies, holding the largest 'share' among the holders of shares in the bank founded in 2008.
According to an investigation by the International Investigative Journalism Consortium (ICIJ), Matter Business Solutions received, in Dubai, about 100 million dollars for Sonangol's consulting services in less than 24 hours, via EuroBic, in Lisbon, already after businesswoman Isabel dos Santos was exonerated from the position of executive president of the Angolan oil company.
The information collected by the ICIJ investigation also reveals that Sonangol's account at Eurobic Lisbon was emptied and had a negative balance the day after the businesswoman's dismissal.
In view of the disclosure, on Sunday, by a group of investigative journalists of more than 715 thousand files, under the name "Luanda Leaks", which detail financial schemes of Isabel dos Santos and her husband, Sindika Dokolo, who will be the source of the family fortune, the agency Lusa tried to get reactions from other companies in Portugal where the Angolan businesswoman has interests.
Isabel dos Santos' investments in Portugal are mainly concentrated in the banking, energy and telecommunications sectors, namely with positions in the telecommunications operator NOS, in the EuroBic bank, in Efacec and in Galp.
Contacted by Lusa, the Amorim group and NOS declined to comment on the situation, as did BPI (which holds a 48.1 percent stake in Banco de Fomento Angola and has already been forced to sell 2 percent by the European Central Bank to Unitel, which became the majority shareholder), and so far it has not been possible to obtain a position on the part of the management and the Efacec Workers' Committee and the management of Galp.
The Lusa agency also questioned the Securities Market Commission (CMVM) and the Ministry of Economy, having so far not received any answers.
Mira Amaral, the first leader of the Portuguese BIC (now EuroBIC), also declined to comment on the case: “I left the bank four years ago, I never spoke about the bank and Angola again”, he told Lusa.
During the investigation, more than 400 companies (and their subsidiaries) to which Isabel dos Santos has been linked in the last three decades, including 155 Portuguese and 99 Angolan companies, were identified.
