The former vice-president of Angola and former president of oil company Sonangol, Manuel Vicente, is the target of an equity investigation aimed at recovering assets for the Angolan state, according to a judicial source.
The name of Manuel Vicente appears associated with CIF, a Chinese company whose assets in Angola recently passed to the state sphere and to several businesses that go back to the time when he led Sonangol and which will have cost the country millions of dollars.
According to the newspaper Expresso, the investigation services of the Angolan Attorney General’s Office (PGR) estimate that Sonangol will have delivered US $ 2.3 billion (1.9 million euros), through oil shipments, to the Chinese businessman. British Sam Pa, the main face of the CIF (China International Fund).
“This operation will have been sustained with oil shipments, the main support of the relationships that, in a nebulous way, involved Sonangol and Sinopec, a Chinese oil company brought to Angola by Sam Pa and partner of the company then led by Manuel Vicente in the exploration of the block 18 ”, reported the weekly on Sunday.
Without detailing the amounts involved, a PGR source said that “there are investigations underway” at the National Asset Recovery Service to identify Manuel Vicente’s assets.
