#Other countries : An Angolan businessman close to ex-president dos Santos has been sentenced by a Luanda court to nine years in prison in a massive corruption case known as “900 million dollars”, according to national radio on Friday.
As founder and CEO of the insurance company AAA Seguros, since dissolved, he was accused of having illegally concluded insurance contracts in the oil industry, in particular with the public company Sonangol, benefiting from the favors of the former President José Eduardo dos Santos.
In power from 1979 to 2017, dos Santos is accused of having allowed his relatives and a small elite to benefit from the wealth generated by the country’s vast oil and mining reserves.
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De São Vicente has always denied this, but the extent of the fraud shocked a country that is used to seeing public coffers siphoned off by corruption and favouritism.
The scandal is also being prosecuted in Switzerland, where the businessman is accused of having placed millions in a bank in Geneva.
Since coming to power in 2017, current President João Lourenço has launched a campaign to recover billions allegedly embezzled under his predecessor’s long presidency.