According to a statement from the law firm Zimeray & Finelle, the confiscation began with the property known as Irca (an acronym for Irene, married to São Vicente and daughter of the first Angolan president, and Carlos), in Luanda.
The lawyers claim that the case against São Vicente was riddled with procedural and human rights violations and emphasize that the national authorities did not wait "for the final sentence to confiscate and distribute for themselves the assets held by Carlos São Vicente".
They also highlight that on August 31, 2023, the Swiss supreme court refused to provide assistance to Angola because the independence and impartiality of the judicial authorities in the criminal proceedings against the businessman were not guaranteed.
They also refer to the recent ruling of the Angolan Constitutional Court which declares that Presidential Decree no. 69/21, which provided that 10% of any assets confiscated by the judicial authorities would revert to them, is unconstitutional.
François Zimeray, quoted in the same statement, again demanded the "immediate release of Carlos Manuel de São Vicente, who has already been imprisoned for more than three years for a crime he did not commit".
Luso-Angolan businessman Carlos São Vicente was sentenced in March last year to nine years in prison and ordered to pay compensation of 500 million dollars.
Carlos São Vicente has been in pre-trial detention since September 2020. The businessman, who for almost two decades had a monopoly on the insurance and reinsurance of the state oil company Sonangol, through the AAA group, allegedly set up a triangular scheme, with companies in Angola, London and Bermuda , which generated losses of millions of dollars for the Angolan treasury.
