According to the same source, within the scope of the so-called BESA process, Álvaro Sobrinho handed in his passports on 21 March and the request for the payment of a security deposit of six million euros through the mortgage of four immovable properties on 25 March, with no dispatch from the judge in relation to that request.
Álvaro Sobrinho was interrogated on 17 March by Judge Carlos Alexandre at the Central Criminal Investigation Court (TCIC) in Lisbon.
According to a note from the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP), he was subject to the following coercive measures: provision of a security deposit in the amount of six million euros, prohibition of leaving the country until the date on which the deposit is fully paid, mandatory reporting to the Portuguese authorities on a quarterly basis and prohibition to leave the Schengen area, with the concomitant immediate delivery of passports.
According to the DCIAP, which investigates the most serious and complex organized crime, Álvaro Sobrinho is indicted for the co-authorship of five crimes of aggravated abuse of trust, eight crimes of aggravated abuse of trust and seven crimes of money laundering of the advantages obtained with the practice of the aforementioned illicit acts.
At stake - refers the DCIAP - will be an illegitimate benefit received by the defendant of approximately 340.7 million euros.
"The fact is related to financing, through lines of credit in the Interbank Money Market from Banco Espírito Santo to Banco Espírito Santo Angola, and with the laundering of the advantages obtained with the diversion of funds with such origin", reveals the DCIAP.
There are also other defendants in the investigation.
On leaving the court, the defense lawyer, Artur Marques, declined to say whether Álvaro Sobrinho was faced with new facts presented by the Public Prosecutor's Office, but revealed that he would appeal the bond applied, with which he does not agree.
Álvaro Sobrinho was until then only subject to a term of identity and residence (TIR).
Already this month, the name of Álvaro Sobrinho had been targeted by an editorial investigation, which released new documents about the participation of BESA and its former president in a scheme to divert millions of dollars from a social housing project in the country.
According to a statement from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), available on the organization's website, which is part of the team that investigated the Panama Papers and Suisse Secrets dossiers, "Álvaro Sobrinho, who led an Angolan bank that collapsed with billions of dollars in unexplained debt is linked to a scheme to divert hundreds of millions of dollars from a government-backed social housing project" in 2009.
At issue is the bank's participation in a financing for the construction of a social housing that ended up never happening, and that researchers say involves the embezzlement of 750 million euros, initially approved for the project that never happened.
