/ 19 April 2013

Angola debt deal back in the spotlight

Angola Debt Deal Back In The Spotlight

Anti-corruption campaigners are calling on Angola and Switzerland to investigate a historical debt repayment deal between Angola and Russia under which it is claimed more than $700-million went "went into private bank accounts".

A new report by United Kingdom-based Corruption Watch and Angolan legal rights group Mãos Livres (Free Hands) makes a string of serious allegations relating to "extraordinary financial impropriety" by Angolan officials. It also questions the role of Swiss bankers who oversaw the payments through escrow accounts.

Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos, who has ruled Angola for more than three decades, is one of a number of high-profile figures singled out in the dossier that reads like the screenplay for a blockbuster.

It is full of juicy claims about how hundreds of millions of dollars that the Angolan government thought it was paying Russia was instead allegedly diverted into offshore shell companies and private Swiss bank accounts through deals orchestrated by Russian and Israeli oligarchs with well-publicised links to arms dealing.

The 166-page report, based on earlier research by various agencies, claims to present crucial new evidence relating to the controversial debt deal signed in 1996 between Angola, Russia and a private offshore intermediary called Abalone.

Corruption Watch says it has significant new information that warranted the reopening of a probe that Swiss officials closed down in 2004.

It also questions the actions of bankers at the Swiss Banking Corporation (now merged to become Union Bank of Switzerland), which it accuses of overseeing millions of ­dollars of payments into various bank accounts held by senior Angolan ­officials, and their representatives, without asking questions.

Full inquiry
It has called for a similar criminal investigation to take place in Angola, and calls on the Angolan Parliament to launch a full inquiry into what happened.

Last week, a group of Angolan citizens submitted an official dénonciation to the Swiss federal prosecutor's office. It asks that a probe that was shelved in 2006 be reopened, based on "significant" new evidence.

This week a queixa-crime was also handed to the office of the Angolan public prosecutor in Luanda, calling for a criminal probe there into four top-ranking Angolan officials, though Dos Santos was not named in the legal documents.

The director of Corruption Watch, former ANC MP-turned-author and investigator Andrew Feinstein, told the Mail & Guardian: "We have significant new evidence that we feel warrants the reopening of this investigation. As well as new information about beneficiaries and bank accounts, we also have questions about how the old evidence was interpreted, particularly in relation to a testimony given by an expert ­witness at the time."

The publication of the report has so far yielded no response from the Angolan authorities, who are not known for their tolerance of criticism. Last month, a small anti-government protest that had been given formal permission to proceed was shut down by riot police, and more than a dozen people were arrested.

The majority of media is state controlled, and private outlets, which are generally owned by government ministers or people close to the ruling People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), rarely challenge officials or even give platforms to opposition members.

Personal risks
But although there were few official reports about the allegations, websites and social networks such as Facebook have been buzzing.

Acknowledging the significant personal risks taken by the Angolans who have put their names to the court claims, Feinstein said: "We must applaud the courage and bravery of our Angolan partners for ­taking this stand. They are incredibly determined to ensure justice is done, both in Switzerland and Angola, and they are demonstrating enormous ­bravery with their actions."

It has been a busy few months for Angola's public prosecutor.

Last month, the main opposition party, Unita, submitted several queixa-crimes accusing Dos Santos, along with a group of senior government officials, of a string of crimes relating to alleged vote rigging in the 2012 general election. Based on claims it made to the constitutional court when it appealed the final poll result in August – an appeal that was thrown out – Unita listed a number of alleged criminal acts including treason, abuse of power, documentation sabotage and fraud.

The attorney general, João Maria de Sousa, responded by saying he does not have the jurisdiction to decide whether he may investigate the head of state, and he told reporters in Luanda he had referred the ­matter to Parliament, though there was no indication whether he would ­consider the other claims.

Civilian prosecution
The grey area around the capacity to prosecute a sitting president in Angola is believed to be the reason that Dos Santos was not named in the Mãos Livres complaint relating to the Angola-Russia debt deal.

Constitutionally, Angola's courts are independent, but all senior judges are hand-picked by Dos Santos and there is no record of any civilian prosecution against any ­senior government or MPLA figure.

Although the United States's powerful Security and Exchange Commission is investigating claims of alleged illicit financial gain by senior Angolan officials regarding reported ownership of shares in offshore oil blocks, a criminal complaint submitted about this to authorities in Luanda has received no response.

The allegations were laid by Angolan anti-corruption activist Rafael Marques, who in 2011 also tried to bring the owners of a private security company and a diamond firm to court for crimes against humanity regarding the alleged mistreatment of artisanal miners.

Twelve months after it was presented, his case was "archived" on the grounds of "no evidence", but he went on to use his claims as the basis for his book Blood Diamonds, which alleges abuse against diamond miners and local communities in northeastern Angola. A year later, a group of senior Angolan officials launched defamation proceedings against Marques and his publisher in Lisbon.

This was later archived out by the Portuguese courts, but the generals and the diamond company have since launched new defamation proceedings against him in Luanda.

Read the full Corruption Watch report here.