The PGR, in a statement released this Monday, stated that Hélder Pitta Grós's visit aims to formalize local acts and procedures for the execution of the sentence and subsequent recovery of the businessman's "illicit assets" domiciled in the Swiss Confederation.
According to the PGR, the magistrate's trip is part of "efforts to recover assets illegally removed" from the country.
Pitta Grós will discuss with the Swiss authorities "not only the issue of reconversion of financial assets in favor of the Angolan State, but also issues related to the situation of some assets depending on their geographical location and the need to defend common interests of the parties", reads the note.
The President of the Republic said, in April, that the country is trying to recover, but without success, assets worth almost two billion dollars from Portuguese-Angolan businessman Carlos São Vicente.
"As part of the fight against corruption and in relation to asset recovery, we heard (...) the public statements of the Attorney General of the Republic regarding the efforts that the PGR is making to execute the sentence against an Angolan citizen who has assets worth almost two billion US dollars (...) in different countries and which, according to the ruling of the Angolan court, revert in favor of the Angolan State", said João Lourenço, at the opening of the meeting of the Central Committee of Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA).
João Lourenço mentioned that the PGR has been working since December 2023 with the Swiss authorities, a country where a large part of these resources are domiciled in banks, without having been able to recover these amounts to date.
"The Angolan executive is sovereign in deciding the fate of this resource, obviously being subject to the scrutiny of the competent Angolan entities, defined in the Constitution and the law", he stated.
The MPLA president was referring to the case of Portuguese-Angolan businessman Carlos São Vicente, and son-in-law of the country's first President, António Agostinho Neto, who has bank accounts in Switzerland with more than one billion dollars, in addition to other accounts in Portugal, Singapore, Dubai and Bermuda, according to data provided by PGR.
The Portuguese-Angolan businessman, married to Irene Neto, is serving a nine-year sentence for embezzlement, tax fraud and money laundering, having also been sentenced to pay compensation of 500 million dollars.
At the end of April, businessman Carlos São Vicente's lawyers asked for an end to what they consider to be a "relentless campaign" of discredit promoted by the Government against the Portuguese-Angolan businessman.
The lawyers stated that the campaign aims to transform São Vicente into a "trophy" in the fight against corruption.
