Bonum Certa Men Certa

Battistelli's Club Med at the EPO – Part III: Angola and the Portuguese “Laundromat”

Coat of arms of AngolaSummary: This part looks at allegations that the former colony Angola is exporting corruption back to Portugal

THE EPO is about to sign some more papers with Angola (see part 1), one African country which both António Campinos and Benoît Battistelli are connected to (see part 2).



Before we say more about the Angolan connection (to the EPO, Portugal and France) we wish to introduce readers to this background information.




As many people will already know, Angola is a former Portuguese colony.

"Before we say more about the Angolan connection (to the EPO, Portugal and France) we wish to introduce readers to this background information."After it became independent in November 1975 the country was plagued by a long period of civil war which continued with some interludes until 2002. The civil war was essentially a power struggle between two former liberation movements, the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). The conflict served as a surrogate battleground for the Cold War and it was characterised by large-scale direct and indirect international involvement by the Soviet Union and Cuba (on the side of the MPLA) and South Africa and the United States (on the side of UNITA).

As reported by the New York Times in June 2017, a reconstruction and oil boom following the civil war presented the politically-connected with a golden opportunity for self-enrichment. In an economy driven by President José Eduardo dos Santos (of the MPLA), his inner circle of family and allies have amassed extraordinary wealth. (c/f Angola’s Corrupt Building Boom: ‘Like Opening a Window and Throwing Out Money’)

In August 2017 the political situation in Angola got some coverage in the international media due to the elections being held there.

Transparency International took advantage of the occasion to issue a statement with the headline "Elections in Angola: time to tackle corruption".

According to Transparency International: "Corruption has for too long enriched a small ruling elite while more than two thirds of the country’s population live in poverty. Angola is the archetype of a captured state. It scores only 18 and ranks 164 out of 176 on the 2016 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index indicating rampant corruption."

The theme of corruption in Angola was explored further by the New York Times in an article with the headline "Portugal Dominated Angola for Centuries. Now the Roles Are Reversed" which was published shortly before the August elections.

"After it became independent in November 1975 the country was plagued by a long period of civil war which continued with some interludes until 2002."This New York Times article described how the former colony whose elite are being enriched by oil revenues is now exporting corruption back to the colonial motherland.

The article quotes Ana Gomes, a Member of the European Parliament from Portugal’s governing Socialist Party: "In Angola, they call Portugal the laundromat. It’s because it is."

According to the New York Times: "Angola is often listed as one of the world’s most corrupt nations. And Portugal has been singled out for its laxness in reining in money laundering and bribery, particularly in its dealings with Angolans, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the research and policy organization of the world’s richest countries."

Relations between Portugal and Angola have been strained recently by the indictment of Angola's Vice-President, Manuel Vicente, in February 2017. Vicente is a protégé and close associate of the controversial Angolan President José Eduardo Dos Santo who has ruled the country since 1979. Vicente first came to prominence following his appointment as CEO of Sonangol, the parastatal oil and gas company which has been used by Dos Santos over the decades to further his own political and business interests and those of his family.

Reports of interest:



A statement from the Prosecutor General’s office in Lisbon said that Manuel Vicente paid a bribe of €760,000 ($810,000) to a Portuguese prosecutor who was investigating previous allegations of corruption against him. The Vice-President was accused of, among other things, laundering money by buying apartments in the "Angolans’ building" on the coast of Cascais. He has denied the allegations.

"Relations between Portugal and Angola have been strained recently by the indictment of Angola's Vice-President..."In a separate development it was reported in July 2017 that three lawyers and four people including a former board member of the Portuguese national airline TAP had been charged with illegal activities related to an "Angolan money laundering scam" involving and Angolan company Sonair which is a subsidiary of Sonangol.

The National Airline in Portugal is accused of a corruption scheme with officials from Angolan Public Oil Company Sonangol. That was the headline of an article from this summer.

Top TAP director accused in Angola money laundering scam. That's another report from around the same time.

The current CEO of Sonangol is Ms. Isabel Dos Santos, daughter of the President, who was appointed to this position in 2016.

In 2012, Dos Santos was ranked by Forbes as one of "the five worst leaders in Africa".

"In a separate development it was reported in July 2017 that three lawyers and four people including a former board member of the Portuguese national airline TAP had been charged with illegal activities related to an "Angolan money laundering scam" involving and Angolan company Sonair which is a subsidiary of Sonangol."Forbes had this to say about Dos Santos: "To his discredit, José Eduardo has always run his government like it’s his personal, privately-owned investment holding company. His cousin serves as the Angola’s vice president, and his daughter, Isabel Dos Santos is arguably the wealthiest woman in the country."

The local media in Angola has described his presidency as "the epicentre of corruption".

Recent Techrights' Posts

BetaNews Has More or Less Died After Experiments With LLM Slop, Is Linuxsecurity Next?
It doesn't seem like BetaNews knows what it's doing, let alone what it talks about
Links 13/06/2025: Journalists Targeted by Cracking, China-Japan and Israel-Iran Tensions Grow
Links for the day
 
Links 14/06/2025: Wars and L.A. Distortion Effect
Links for the day
Gemini Links 14/06/2025: Historic Ada Design and GeminiSpace.Club to Expire
Links for the day
Links 14/06/2025: India Plane Crash and Middle-Eastern War
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 13, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, June 13, 2025
Gemini Links 13/06/2025: (Not)virtues and Project Yeet Broadband
Links for the day
Links 13/06/2025: US Reduces Nonessential Staff at Baghdad Embassy Ahead of Strikes in Iran, Invasion of California Debated
Links for the day
X11 is Free Software
Whether you agree (e.g. on politics) with the person/s forking it doesn't matter
The More Time Passes, the Better Our Advice on Social Control Media Seems
At the end of the day, any platform you do not control yourself is working for someone else
Twitter (X) is Dying, Now It's Just Like a Mafia-Type Operation of the Man Who Does Nazi Salutes in Public
a form of extortion
UK High Court Blasts Brett Wilson LLP for Misusing "GDPR" After Failed Efforts to Censor Critics Using 'Libel' Claims
No wonder this firm is rapidly shrinking
Recent Blunders in Microsoft GitHub (e.g. Slop-Generated Bug Reports or GPL Violations 'as a Service') Taking Their Toll?
Put bluntly, if you still use Microsoft GitHub, then you're slave to Microsoft
American Imperialism and Microsoft Plagiarism
Techrights will therefore do what Microsoft does not want it to do: it'll write even more about Microsoft
When They Have Nothing Left to Help Advance Abusive Litigation for Microsoft People... Other Than Throwing ~500 Pages of Someone Else's Work Into a PDF
Microsoft is having a very tough year
The Price of Exposing Corruption in Poland (and Elsewhere)
It's easier to participate in corruption than to merely do the right thing and oppose it
Slopwatch and Yet More Holes in 'Secure Boot' (as Usual!), Promoted Inside Linux by the Man We Are Suing
Today's Slopwatch will be short
Gemini Links 13/06/2025: People You've Left Behind, Life Update and OS Changes
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 12, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, June 12, 2025
Links 12/06/2025: Portland Homeless Deaths Quadruple, COVID Cases Surge in Asia
Links for the day
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part IX: Minimum Wages For You (Experienced Scientist), Alicante/EU Paydays For Me (Unproductive, Corrupt Official)
Does UPRP maladministration extend to the false belief that qualified and experienced scientists can play the role of circus clowns?
"The Liberating Power of Simply Telling People the Truth."
'polite' bullying
Who Imitates Who? Plagiarist as Client (From Microsoft), 'Plagiarism' at the Law Firm?
let's revisit the subject
EPO's Gareth Lord Asked About "Quality and Productivity" or, Put Another Way, Why the EPO Keeps Granting So Many Invalid/Illegal Patents
letter to Lord
EPO's Central Staff Committee (CSC) Scrutinises the Man Who Illegally Grants (and Forces Others to Illegally Participate in Granting) Software Patents in Europe
EPO compels examiners to break the law in the name of obeying illegal "rules" or "orders"
The Latest Rumour Says The Next (as Correctly Predicted Before) Wave of Layoffs at Microsoft is 3 Weeks Away, "Larger Than the First Wave"
Step 2
TV Licensing Used to SPAM Your Postbox, Now It Does the Same to E-mail
First they ask for your E-mail address; then they start nagging you via E-mail
The Toxic Playbook
Either you support Prince Mohammed bin Salman or you're a nazi
It's Possible That BetaNews Got Cracked, But Nobody Talks About It, The Site Contains an Outdated Old Image, No Activity
It's possible that they will never explain what happened to the site and users' accounts
Links 12/06/2025: Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson Dies
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/06/2025: Video Game Diegesis and Steam Next Fest
Links for the day
Why the Militants Have Lost Every Battle Since 2022 (When Attacking My Wife and I in Various Ways, Even Attacking Our Employers)
This takes patience, sure, but at the end most evildoers face the consequences for their actions
Our Priority is Still Tackling Software Patents and Corruption in Patent Offices
Meanwhile we got compliments on our recent articles, which means that they are effective
Politics Will Impact Software Choices
Will those systems respect users' freedom?
EPO: Neglecting Children to Promote American Monopolies by Shielding Them From European Competition
Yesterday the Central Staff Committee at the EPO spoke about another "reform" at the Office
Slopwatch: Another Day, Another Slopfest, LLM Slop Scrapers Slow Down Our Site
We too have some slop issues; this past day this site and the sister site had to answer about 2.5 million requests (not counting Gemini Protocol) and it's slowing things down for everybody
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 11, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 11, 2025