Portuguese gov’t accuses Angolan businessman Alvaro Sobrinho of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars

Alvaro Sobrinho, an Angolan businessman and the former president of Banco Esprito Santo Angola (BES Angola), has been accused by Portugal’s Public Ministry of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars from the bank to accounts he controlled, specifically in Switzerland.

According to Portugal Resident, the businessman was charged with aggravated fraud, abuse of trust, and money laundering in an alleged scheme that appears to have involved the lodging of about €6 billion ($6.12 billion) in the guise of “irregular loans” to “faithful trustees” between 2009 and 2013.

Since he was ordered to surrender his passport and barred from leaving Portugal in March, no single report has been able to pinpoint where Sobrinho was when the accusations were made by the ministry.

Following a protracted dispute with Portugal’s Central Criminal Investigation Court in March, the businessman surrendered his passports and a request for a €6-million ($6.12 million) security deposit through the mortgage of four real estate properties.

The accusations come nearly four months after the Portuguese Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action opened a new investigation against the businessman for stealing millions of dollars from BES Angola, one of Angola’s largest financial services firms.

In the inquiry, Sobrinho was charged with stealing more than €350 million ($357.2 million) from BES Angola (now Banco Economico) out of a total of €400 million ($408.3 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 BES Angola to its bankrupt parent company, Banco Espirito Santo, a Portuguese bank liquidated in 2016.