Angolan businessman Alvaro Sobrinho, who has been accused of stealing more than €350 million ($387 million) from BES Angola (now Banco Economico), has submitted a request to provide a guarantee of €6 million ($6.64 million) through the mortgage of four real estate properties.
According to a note from the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP), the businessman surrendered his passports, as well as a request for the payment of a security deposit of €6 million ($6.64 million) through the mortgage of four immovable properties.
This is consistent with an earlier order by a Portuguese court, which imposed coercive measures such as a 6-million-euro security deposit and a prohibition on leaving the country until the deposit is fully paid.
The sanctions were imposed after Sobrinho, the former president of BES Angola, the Angolan bank that collapsed in 2009 with billions of dollars in unaccounted-for debt, was linked to a scheme to steal hundreds of millions of dollars from a government-backed social housing project.
He is also charged with five counts of aggravated abuse of trust, eight counts of aggravated abuse of trust and seven counts of money laundering in connection with the benefits obtained through criminal activities.
Earlier this month, the Portuguese Central Department of Inquiry and Criminal Action opened a new investigation into the businessman for stealing millions of euros from Banco Economico Angola, one of Angola’s leading financial institutions.
In the inquiry, Sobrinho was charged with stealing more than €350 million ($387 million) from BES Angola (now Banco Economico) out of a total of €400 million ($442 million) that benefited a group of defendants, including Amlcar Morais Pires and former banker Ricardo Salgado.
The newly launched criminal investigation by the Lisbon-based criminal investigation team is also linked to Escom’s Founder Helder Bataglia, who was the administrator of the Angola-based bank to its bankrupt parent company, Banco Espirito Santo, a Portuguese bank that was liquidated in 2016.
