Briefly president of Caixa Geral de Depósitos, António Domingues, has been thrown a financial bone by Mário Leite Silva, president of Santoro, the personal holding company of Isabel dos Santos.
Domingues is to become a non-executive director of Banco de Fomento de Angola, an announcement that takes advantage of the current lull in the controversy over his botched 2016 attempt to alter the terms and conditions of his employment as president of Caixa Geral.
The remarkable increase in salary for Domingues as head of state-owned Caixa Geral for four months last year was explained away by the Finance Minster who said Domingues was to head a ‘dream team’ of top-flight bankers to return the loss-making bank to profit. Domingues's refusal to declare his assets to the Constitutional Court, without open scrutiny, was his undoing and he quit in a huff along with other board members who thought they were on the same deal.
There is a commission of inquiry running to find out exactly under what terms and conditions were agreed by Finance Minister, Mário Centeno for Domingues and his new board at Caixa Geral.
Instead of pursuing a period of leisure, toying with his yacht and Porsche, the multi-millionaire banker has taken the bold reputational move to become further allied with Isabel dos Santos, the much criticised daughter of the despotic billionaire president of Angola, José Eduardo dos Santos.
Domingues will become the vice-president of Banco de Fomento Angola (BFA) at the invitation of the chairman of the BFA board of directors, Mário Leite Silva, and also will become the chairman of the audit and finance committee of Efacec, a company controlled by Isabel dos Santos and one that remains enveloped in a fog of suspicion over highly suspicious dealings.
Banco de Fomento Angola is controlled 51.9% by Unitel, an Angolan telecommunications company controlled by Isabel dos Santos.
Domingues also has been invited to become a non-executive director of NOS, in which Isabel dos Santos has a sizeable shareholding alongside Sonae.
Mário Leite Silva explained that the invitation for António Domingues to join the board of BFA was because Domingues is someone with a "profound knowledge of the market.”
