Former TAP boss charged in €25 million Angolan money-laundering scam

Portugal’s public prosecution service has accused seven people of involvement in corruption, money laundering and document forgery to turn money from the Angolan national oil company into classy Portuguese real estate.

Among the suspects is the former TAP administrator Fernando Sobral and José Santos, Vítor Pinto e Pedro Pedroso as well as João Gomes Correia, Miguel Alves Coelho and Ana Paula Reais who acted as intermediaries in the complex money laundering scheme.

The ruse involved the apparent provision of TAP services to Sonair, a subsidiary of the Angolan state-owned oil company, Sonangol which itself is a by-word for money laundering.

The Angolan oil company was able to place large amounts of cash in Portugal by this ficticious billing arrangement.

"The investigation found that Sonair paid TAP more than €25 million without any services being provided," says the prosecution service.

The money that went from Sonair to TAP was then laundered with the cooperation of another company, Worldair.

"The latter, by receiving incomprehensibly high commissions (about two-thirds of the value of the business), allowed the money to be switched to offshore accounts. The money later returned to Portugal to be used for the purchase of luxury real estate in the country," says the prosecution service.

TAP says that it was the current management of the company, now under the private ownership of the Atlantic Gateway consortium that informed the Public Prosecutor's Office of what had been going on, “as soon as it became aware of them" and sent the results of an internal audit to the judicial authorities.

TAP is off the hook as it has done the right thing, but those involved will be prosecuted. Millions in real estate assets may be seized and sold off when the accused are found guilty, m'Lud.

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