The business dealings with Chinese businessmen are said to have started with talks that began in 2004, under the aegis of Manuel Vicente, as chairman of the board of directors of the Angolan oil company Sonangol.
The former vice president of Angola Manuel Vicente is said to have aided and also benefited from the business dealings of Angolan generals ‘Kopelipa’ and ‘Dino’ with Chinese businessmen, which led to them being the target of prosecution by the Public Ministry in Luanda.
According to the indictment to which Lusa had access, the company China International Fund, Limited “appropriated the 24 state buildings, built by the Guangxi company in the centrality of Zango O, hired the company Delta Imobiliária, which sold them to Sonangol, EP, through Sonip, Lda, through the guidance of engineer Manuel Domingos Vicente, for the overall value of USD 475. 347,200.00 (four hundred seventy-five million three hundred forty-seven thousand and two hundred US dollars).”
And the company Delta Imobiliária, which ensured the sale of those buildings “is owned by the engineer Manuel Domingos Vicente and the defendants Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior and Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento, through the Aquattro Group,” adds the text of the document.
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The deals made by Manuel Helder Vieira Dias, known as ‘Kopelipa’, former security man of the late President of the Republic José Eduardo dos Santos, and by Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento, known as ‘Dino’, a businessman and also a man of confidence of the former Head of State, with Chinese businessmen were the target of an accusation by the Public Ministry of Angola, because they indicate the practice by the defendants of crimes of criminal association, money laundering, embezzlement, document forgery, among others, harming the Angolan State in hundreds of millions of euros.
In this accusation Manuel Vicente, former vice-president of Angola is referenced several times. First of all, because the business with Chinese businessmen began with talks started in 2004, under the aegis of Manuel Vicente, as chairman of the board of directors of the Angolan oil company Sonangol.
The year before, Angola had signed a financing agreement with the People’s Republic of China, from which derived, as of 2004, several credit lines with EximBank, CCBB – China Development Bank and Sinosure – Export Credit Insurance Agency.
When this agreement was signed, in the Republic of China, “the Angolan State was represented by the Minister of Finance, Mr. José Pedro de Morais, accompanied by Mr. Manuel Domingos Vicente (PCA [chairman of the board of directors of the Angolan oil company Sonangol and former vice president of Angola], as guarantor of the financing, and Amadeu Maurício (Governor of the BNA [National Bank of Angola]),” reads the text of the accusation of the Angolan Public Ministry.
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Parallel to that financing agreement, in the year 2004, there was also a second relationship between Angola and China, in order to capture foreign investment for the African country, in which on one side was the Angolan State, represented by Manuel Domingos Vicente, and, on the other side, Chinese citizens Sam Pa and Mrs. Lo Fong Hung, the indictment adds.
A relationship that began “when a business group composed of Chinese citizens, led by the aforementioned Sam Pa, approached the management of the company ESCOM, through the Angolan Ambassador in Moscow, General Roberto Leal Monteiro ‘Ngongo’, who arranged the first contact between ESCOM/Grupo Espírito Santo Commerce and Mr. Sam Pa, who was interested in Banco Espírito Santo, in Macau, with the aim of supposedly creating a large Offshore for Africa and Latin America,” says the document.
Commander Hélder Bataglia, who was then the president of Escom, established contacts from Portugal with the Chinese businessman and communicated, not only the existence of these talks, as well as the pretensions and strategic plans of the Chinese, to Angola, which decided to send a mission to China, says the Public Ministry.
“Upon arrival in China, businessman Hélder Bataglia introduced Mr. Sam Pa to Engineer Manuel Domingos Vicente,” the document also states, adding, that the commission then held several meetings in Beijing, Hong Kong and Macau, with heads of oil companies, China’s First Deputy Prime Minister, senior security officials, head of the Macau Monetary Authority and various businessmen.
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And it was during this trip that the Angolan delegation had a working meeting with Sam Pa, in Hong Kong, where the whole strategy with Sonangol was outlined, as well as the construction of centralities and factories of Sam Pa’s Group in Angola, and it was even agreed the business vehicle with which the Chinese would invest in Angola, creating in that meeting the name CIF – China International Fund.
When this agreement was signed, in the Republic of China, “the Angolan State was represented by the Minister of Finance, Mr. José Pedro de Morais, accompanied by Mr. Manuel Domingos Vicente (PCA [chairman of the board of directors of the Angolan oil company Sonangol and former vice president of Angola], as guarantor of financing, and Amadeu Maurício (Governor of the BNA [National Bank of Angola]),” reads the text of the accusation of the Angolan Public Ministry.
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Parallel to that financing agreement, in the year 2004, there was also a second relationship between Angola and China, in order to capture foreign investment for the African country, in which on one side was the Angolan State, represented by Manuel Domingos Vicente, and, on the other side, Chinese citizens Sam Pa and Mrs. Lo Fong Hung, the indictment adds.
A relationship that began “when a business group composed of Chinese citizens, led by the aforementioned Sam Pa, approached the management of the company ESCOM, through the Angolan Ambassador in Moscow, General Roberto Leal Monteiro ‘Ngongo’, who arranged the first contact between ESCOM/Grupo Espírito Santo Commerce and Mr. Sam Pa, who was interested in Banco Espírito Santo, in Macau, with the aim of supposedly creating a large Offshore for Africa and Latin America,” says the document.
Commander Hélder Bataglia, who was then the president of Escom, established contacts from Portugal with the Chinese businessman and communicated, not only the existence of these talks, as well as the pretensions and strategic plans of the Chinese, to Angola, which decided to send a mission to China, says the Public Ministry.
“Upon arrival in China, businessman Hélder Bataglia introduced Mr. Sam Pa to Engineer Manuel Domingos Vicente,” the document also states, adding, that the commission then held several meetings in Beijing, Hong Kong and Macau, with heads of oil companies, China’s First Deputy Prime Minister, senior security officials, head of the Macau Monetary Authority and various businessmen.
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And it was during this trip that the Angolan delegation had a working meeting with Sam Pa, in Hong Kong, where the whole strategy with Sonangol was outlined, as well as the construction of centralities and factories of Sam Pa’s Group in Angola, and even agreed on the business vehicle with which the Chinese would invest in Angola, creating in that meeting the name CIF – China International Fund.
After the mission to the People’s Republic of China, the delegation reported the situation to the then President of the Republic, who “decided to create a new state entity, to deal with the issue related to cooperation with China,” the text adds.
Thus, Manuel Vicente was in charge of relations involving oil, while the tasks related to National Reconstruction (GRN) and other types of investments were the responsibility of Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior, ‘Kopelipa’.
Within the scope of this division of tasks, the Office of National Reconstruction (GRN) was also created, under the dependence of the President of the Republic, in his capacity as Head of Government, and ‘Kopelipa’ was appointed as its director, by Presidential Decree, a position he held until 2010, accumulating it with that of Minister of State and head of the Military House of the President of the Republic.
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Manuel Vicente and his Cabinet director, José Pedro Benge, were also part of the Office of National Reconstruction, but “only in the scope of monitoring in function of the cooperation with China, without responsibilities in the execution of projects, which were exclusive to the GRN itself,” reads the prosecutor’s document.
The Chinese thus invest in the centralities that the Angolan government wanted to develop, contracted by the National Reconstruction Office and paid for by Sonangol, EP, with its own funds.
