Álvaro Sobrinho, who led an Angolan bank that collapsed with billions of dollars of unexplained debts, is linked by new documents and testimony to a scheme to siphon hundreds of millions of dollars of government-backed financing for social housing. Sobrinho had 12 accounts in Suisse Secrets data, three of which were set up at the time of the alleged scam.
Key Findings
- The CEO of a company that was granted a 750-million-euro line of credit to build a housing project in Angola claims that banker Álvaro Sobrinho and his associates drew down the credit through a scheme involving offshore companies.
- Bank documents reviewed by reporters indicate that millions of dollars earmarked for the builder moved through Sobrinho’s bank, Banco Espírito Santo Angola, but were never sent on to the company.
- Around the same time, Sobrinho set up Credit Suisse accounts worth at least 78 million Swiss francs (over $72 million at the time).
- A financial management company involved in managing the line of credit wrote to the Angolan president to complain that Sobrinho’s bank was mismanaging the funds.
