In a clarification sent to Lusa on the reasons for the resignation of BFA's vice-president, António Domingues, who resigned after sending a letter to the Angolan regulator warning of the "serious breach" of banking rules, BFA points out that "the report drawn up in June 2020 essentially concludes that the issue was effectively dealt with in 2017 by the outgoing administration" of the bank.
At the time, BFA's management, in view of the clarifications provided by the administrator, Maria Manuela Martins Moreira, who was targeted by the internal audit, concluded that there were no reasons to doubt her suitability and decided to close the case.
"Following the conclusions of the second report drawn up in June 2020, the Board of Directors of BFA, in a session held on 6 July, decided not to reopen the said process", states the communiqué.
The bank thus considered that "the suspicions that BFA might have regarding the issues raised in 2017, relative to money laundering, were overcome with the confirmation of BFA's compliance with the necessary procedures for this type of operation", the document stresses.
The Portuguese manager António Domingues had a different opinion and presented his concerns to the governor of the National Bank of Angola, José de Lima Massano, in a letter and resigned from his post.
The facts, identified in an information from BFA's audit and inspection department dated August 2017, refer to two banking operations carried out in one of its investment centres in which the person in charge of the centre and the administrator of the portfolio (Maria Manuel Martins Moreira) intervened directly and indirectly.
Thirty-three months later, in May 2020, BFA's management became aware of the information, through the Chairman of the Executive Committee, António Domingues Catana, and the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Rui Mangueira, requested that a report be drawn up on the subject, produced in June 2020, which resulted in the deliberation not to reopen the process.
BFA has a majority stake in the mobile operator Unitel (51.9 per cent), with the remaining being held by the Portuguese bank BPI (48.1 per cent).
In 2019, Unitel passed into the hands of Sonangol, removing the businesswoman Isabel dos Santos from the operator's control.
In this way, the businesswoman, daughter of the former president José Eduardo dos Santos, ceased to indirectly control the management of BFA, culminating in the appointment of the former minister, Rui Mangueira, as chairman of the board of directors, succeeding Mário Leite Silva, who resigned in January.
The Portuguese manager Mário Leite Silva is one of the Portuguese facilitators of Isabel dos Santos' business involving suspicious financial schemes and is a defendant in the Angolan justice system.
