CEO of Angola's BFA bank resigns
Luanda, ANGOLA, January 24 - The CEO of Banco de Fomento Angola (BFA) and Isabel dos Santo's manager, Mário Filipe Moreira Leite da Silva, has resigned from the position he occupied in the institution, the bank said on Thursday in its website.,
Mário Leite da Silva is one of the Portuguese facilitators of Isabel dos Santos' businesses involving suspicious financial schemes revealed in the journalistic investigation known as "Luanda Leaks".
Last December, Luanda Court ordered the preventive freezing of the assets of Isabel dos Santos and her husband Sindika Dokolo, as well as those of Mário Leite da Silva.
The measure is the result of an injunction filed by the Angolan State, following a process that is underway, in which it requests the payment of1.1 billion debt as result of several deals between Angolan State companies and the defendants.
The Attorney General's Office announced early on Wednesday that Isabel dos Santos is also facing charges over mismanagement of funds and embezzlement during the period she led the State oil firm Sonangol along with some Portuguese citizens, including Mário Leite da Silva.
The Portuguese citizen, right-hand man of the daughter of the former Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos, took up the lead of BFA in January 2017, following the signing of an agreement for the purchase of 2 per cent of BFA’s share by the telecommunication operator Unitel.
On BFA's Board of Directors there is also another Isabel dos Santos’ close manager, António Domingues, currently the vice-chairman of the bank.
Jorge Brito Pereira, Isabel dos Santos’ longtime lawyer is also member of BFA's governing body in his capacity as Chairman of the General Meeting and is also one of the business facilitators exposed by the "Luanda Leaks" research.
Luanda Leaks details financial schemes of the Angolan businesswoman and her husband that enabled them to swindle money from the Angolan Government’s Treasury by using tax havens, whose allegations Isabel dos Santos considers "completely baseless".
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