Carlos São Vicente, former owner of AAA Seguros, is accused of money laundering and continued tax fraud for five years, with amounts exceeding one billion euros, being Manuel Vicente, former vice president of Angola and former president of the oil company state-owned Sonangol, appointed as a partner.
Sources contacted by Lusa said that Manuel Vicente is one of the names on the list of about 30 deponents who should be heard by judge Edson Escrivão during the sessions taking place at the Luanda Provincial Court (Dona Ana Joaquina).
The defense, which concluded the presentation of its defense on February 15, tries to prove the lack of justification of the accusations against the businessman, asking for his acquittal, and pointing out numerous irregularities and procedural nullities.
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 Angolan treasury, in fiscal terms, in an amount in excess of 1.2 billion dollars.
With this scheme, and according to the same document, Carlos São Vicente, owner of one of the largest private business groups in Angola at the time, also managed not to share profits from the insurance and reinsurance business with other co-insurers, such as the public insurer ENSA, thus harming these companies, as well as Sonangol itself.
For the prosecution, Carlos São Vicente created from a certain point a "kind of business with himself, within the AAA group [which he owned], causing the diversion of public funds".
With this scheme, when an insured contacted him, through AAA Seguros, in Angola, the entrepreneur would contract with group companies outside the country, evading taxes in Angola. This structure "in no way benefited the Angolan State" and "only benefited the AAA group of companies", led and already controlled, at the time, by Carlos São Vicente, refer the prosecutors.
The defense of the Portuguese-Angolan businessman, married to Irene Neto, daughter of the first Angolan President, António Agostinho Neto, rejects the alleged losses of "premium inflation", since the values would be fixed by the reinsurers, the premiums being approved by the operators and associated companies and by the Sonangol concessionaire.
The defense also denies that AAA Seguros was constituted with exclusively public funds and states that the company paid the Angolan State more than 96 million dollars in taxes and fees, and in 2019 a declaration was issued by the tax authority, declaring the no tax debts.
Supporters of Carlos São Vicente also contradict the idea that the state insurer ENSA would have saved 300 million dollars in 2016 and 2017, after returning to lead the co-insurance of oil activities, as the premiums received by AAA Seguros in previous years (2014 and 2015) will not have exceeded 70 million dollars/year.
The trial began on 11 February, but journalists were prevented that day from capturing image and sound, complaining of impediments to accessing the courtroom of the Court of the District of Luanda.
