Trial of businessman Carlos São Vicente starts this Wednesday in Luanda

The businessman, married to Irene Neto, daughter of the first Angolan president, António Agostinho Neto, has been in preventive detention since September 2020 and is accused of several crimes, including tax fraud, involving amounts in excess of one billion dollars, embezzlement and money laundering. of capital.

According to the indictment, the businessman, who for almost two decades had the monopoly of insurance and reinsurance of the state oil company Sonangol, will have set up a triangular scheme, with companies in Angola, London and Bermuda, which generated losses for the national treasury, in fiscal terms, in an amount in excess of one billion dollars.

The judicial authorities ordered the seizure of assets and bank accounts belonging to the businessman, and the Attorney General's Office also requested the freezing of bank accounts and the seizure of Irene Neto's assets.

According to the defense, which says it was only notified two weeks ago about the start of the trial, there are several "arbitraries" in the process against the businessman, owner of AAA Seguros, which should damage Angola's image.

The "excessive preventive detention" as well as the inhumane conditions in which he is detained, with an impact on the deterioration of his health, and the fact that he did not have access to the charges against him in order to respond, were pointed out on Monday. by one of its lawyers, the Frenchman François Zimeray, as examples of these "arbitraries".

"The appropriation of assets is illegal and will undermine Angola's image and its attractiveness for investors and for anyone who wants to work in Angola in the future. press from Paris, adding that the international community "will be vigilant" about the process.

According to the defense on a website dedicated to the case, on October 6, 2020, Carlos São Vicente was visited in jail by two prosecutors from the National Asset Recovery Service, without the presence of his lawyers, having refused to hand over his assets. .

They also talk about the confiscation of assets without trial: "Many properties belonging to Carlos São Vicente or his companies were seized; shortly afterwards, they began to be definitively distributed, on instructions from the PGR, by various ministries and other State bodies", refer, stressing that this distribution, before a trial takes place, "means that the conviction decision has already been taken".

"The same happened with shares in a company belonging to Carlos São Vicente: after their seizure, the named depositary hastened to make public the final destination of these shares, assuming that they already belonged to the State", they add.

They also regret that part of the seized properties are abandoned, namely the hotel chain made up of the IU and IKA hotels, which "began to wither".