(3 minutes read)
· The attorney general of Angola had taken into custody buildings and hotels belonging to AAA, a company associated with Carlos Manuel de São Vicente.
· Recently, the Swiss authorities have frozen US$900 million fortune belonging to de São Vicente, who has been a key figure in Angola’s oil industry
· He heads a group of companies, including AAA Seguros, which deals with insurance and reinsurance products to state oil company Sonangol.
The attorney general of Angola had taken into custody buildings and hotels belonging to AAA, a company associated with Carlos Manuel de São Vicente. Recently, the Swiss authorities have frozen US$900 million fortune belonging to de São Vicente, who has been a key figure in Angola’s oil industry. He heads a group of companies, including AAA Seguros, which deals with insurance and reinsurance products to state oil company Sonangol.
An Angolan presidential decree revoked AAA’s insurance contracts in the oil industry in 2016. The reason given by the government order was non-transparent management. de São Vicente through his lawyer denied any wrongdoing. His wife, a daughter of Angola’s former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos and an ex-deputy minister in the ruling MPLA party, said her husband would be proved innocent.
The Angolan government has charged him on crimes like embezzlement, conspiracy in economic activity, influence peddling and money-laundering etc. What attracted seizure included AAA buildings, IU and IKA hotels located throughout the country and a few other properties. It is being reported that de São Vicente holds more than US$1.4 billion in assets and owns 86 buildings, including one belonging to the IKA hotel chain and 12 to IU hotels. Switzerland froze US$900 million belonging to de São Vicente in 2018 relating to a money-laundering case. This is incidentally one of the largest freezes of personal assets in Swiss history.
