In a press release this Tuesday, Álvaro João, spokesman for the Attorney General's Office (PGR), confirmed the authenticity of a letter from that judicial body in response to a rogatory letter from the Swiss judicial authorities.
According to Álvaro João, on the same date last August, no lawsuit against Carlos de São Vicente, who is currently in pre-trial detention, was pending in Angola following an investigation into the existence of 900 million dollars in one of his accounts with a Swiss bank.
"We couldn't respond any differently, so when we learned of the facts against him, we sent the Swiss authorities a letter rogatory requesting more elements that could help us with the investigations," he explained.
Álvaro João underlined that, in the light of the reply to the letter rogatory from the Angolan PGR and of public denunciations that arose internally, it was possible to gather more elements for the opening of the case, which allowed it to be constituted as a defendant and the seizure of several assets and social participations.
The PGR spokesperson pointed out that an emissary of that Angolan justice body went to Switzerland, bringing new factual and documentary elements, which allowed the Angolan judicial authorities to act.
"In the context of cooperation relations, the parties must act with truth and ethics, and what happened was precisely to inform the Swiss authorities that in Angola Carlos Manuel Vicente was not running some process against the crimes that were requested of us," he said.
According to Álvaro João, the process runs its legal procedures and when it is concluded it will be sent to the court for due treatment.
In the August letter, the Attorney General's Office of the Republic of Angola stated that there was no evidence in the country of the crimes of corruption, money laundering, economic participation in business or any other crime in connection with the facts contained in the letter rogatory sent by the Swiss authorities.
In September, Carlos de São Vicente was ordered to be remanded in custody following an investigation involving an Angolan businessman's bank account frozen in Switzerland on suspicions of money laundering with some 900 million dollars, according to a Swiss blog that monitors judicial matters in that country.
The judicial authorities ordered the seizure of several buildings of the AAA group, belonging to Carlos de São Vicente, husband of Irene Neto, daughter of the first Angolan president, António Agostinho Neto, who also had his bank accounts frozen by the judicial authorities.
The National Asset Recovery Service of PGR announced the seizure of the AAA buildings, the IU and IKA hotels, located throughout the country and the IRCA building, on Amilcar Cabral Street, in Luanda.
PGR justified the seizure with evidence of embezzlement, economic participation in business, influence peddling and money laundering, crimes for which it was charged.
After the buildings, the National Asset Recovery Service of the PGR also seized the 49 percent minority stake of AAA Activos in Standard Bank Angola, where the businessman is a non-executive director, having requested suspension of functions for the duration of the process.
