Luanda, ANGOLA, February 21 - The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and Central Bank of the Republic of Philippines have notified the Angolan authorities that the USD 50 billion Thai cheque is in fact fake, a key evidence in the "Thai Swindle" trial. ,

According to a source from the General Attorney Office (PGR), the evidence that confirms the forgery of the cheque and the respective authenticity certificate, which the Thai defendants claim to be true, has already been included in the lawsuit.       

 

ANGOP learnt that following investigations to verify the authenticity of the cheque Nº 4518164, the Central Bank of Philippines detected evidences that showed its falseness.

 

On January 22, the group of judges of the Supreme Court requested the Angolan National Bank to check out with Philippines’ Central Bank the  authenticity of the cheque the Thai defendants claimed to be true.

 

The decision was to respond a request by the Thai defendant’s lawyer, Carlos Salumbongo, to confirm the authenticity of the cheque the Thai citizen Raveeroj Rithchoteanan (deemed the brain behind the swindle attempt) said to be true.

 

The request came out days after some media outlets stated that alleged evidence from the Philippines Central Bank issued on February 2018 confirmed the authenticity of the USD 50 billion and the authenticity of the certificate from that country’s Foreign Affairs Department.  

 

In the meantime the Angolan Embassy in Philippines submitted a letter to this country’s DFA to confirm the cheque’s authenticity.

 

In its turn, the Central Bank of Philippines stated that the signatures of its alleged staff were forged, underlining that the institution does not issue cheques, authenticity certificate or confirmation letter nor performs direct transactions with people or corporations.

 

With the current evidence from the Philippines’ DFA the main attention will be turned to the identification of the person, who forged the cheque.

  

The lawsuit dubbed “Thai Swindle” involves the ex-director of the former Technical Unit for Private Investment (UTIP), Norberto Garcia, and nine other national and foreign citizens.

 

They are all accused by the Prosecution Department of having committed crimes of falsification of documents, fraud, association of criminals and money laundering.

 

The scheme was revealed in 2017 when alleged Thai investors, with alleged complicity of national citizens, attempted to "swindle” the Angolan state of USD 50 billion.

 

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