Son of Former Angolan President Convicted in $500 Million Fraud
August 14 2020 - 12:26PM
Dow Jones News
By Gabriele Steinhauser
Angola's Supreme Court convicted the son of the former president
and the former governor of the central bank of embezzling $500
million from the country's central bank in 2017, the state news
agency reported Friday.
José Filomeno dos Santos was sentenced to five years in prison
for participating in a convoluted plot to defraud the National Bank
of Angola in the final weeks of his father's 38-year rule of the
southern African country.
The former governor, Valter Filipe da Silva, who authorized the
$500 million transfer from the central bank's account in London to
the HSBC Holdings PLC account of a private company with no apparent
operations, was sentenced to eight years.
Another former central bank official and a business partner of
Mr. dos Sanots were also sentenced to five and six year terms,
respectively. The four men will remain free pending appeals of
their sentences, the news agency, Angop, reported.
U.K. authorities returned the $500 million to Angola after the
fraud was uncovered in March 2018.
Friday's judgment marks the first conviction of a family member
of former President José Eduardo dos Santos, whom the government of
his successor, João Lourenço, has accused of stealing more than a
billion dollars from the oil-producing country. Angolan authorities
have frozen assets owned by Isabel dos Santos, the former
president's daughter and long considered Africa's richest
woman.
Ms. dos Santos, who was the chief executive of Angolan state oil
company Sonangol until November 2017, has denied wrongdoing and
says that she built her wealth without help from her father.
Write to Gabriele Steinhauser at
gabriele.steinhauser@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 14, 2020 12:11 ET (16:11 GMT)
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