Probe follows $500m money trail in Dos Santos fraud case
• Angolan central bank’s account with Standard Chartered was used to transfer the sum, says commercial bank
The $500m at the centre of alleged fraud involving the son of Angola’s former president was transferred out of a Standard Chartered account held by Angola’s central bank, the British bank said on Wednesday.
The Angolan prosecutor general’s office said on Monday it had charged Jose Filomeno dos Santos, the former president’s son, and Valter Filipe da Silva, the former governor of the central bank, known as Banco Nacional de Angola, with fraud over the case.
Britain’s National Crime Agency said last week $500m had been frozen in the UK as part of an investigation into a potential fraud against Angola’s central bank and could be returned to the country.
“We are aware that our client, Banco Nacional de Angola, was the victim of an attempted fraud in Angola which involved the transfer of funds from their Standard Chartered Bank account,” Standard Chartered said in a response to questions.
The bank did not respond to a question on how the transaction appeared to have bypassed security mechanisms.
The Angolan central bank, which has so far made no public statement about the case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Dos Santos is the highestprofile figure charged since President Joao Lourenco succeeded long-time leader Jose Eduardo dos Santos in September 2017, pledging to tackle an endemic culture of corruption in the oil-producing country.
Reuters was unable to contact Jose Filomeno dos Santos. He said in a statement circulated in Angolan media on Tuesday that he was cooperating with the investigation and had handed his passports in to the prosecutor general’s office.
Reuters has also been unable to reach Da Silva for comment.
Standard Chartered said it was closely cooperating with Angola’s central bank and British law enforcement.
A source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday that HSBC had frozen a bank account in connection with the alleged fraud.
The Financial Times, which reported the HSBC bank freeze earlier, said documents purporting to be from Swiss bank Credit Suisse had also been used in the fraud.
The documents were fake and Credit Suisse was not involved in the transaction, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Britain’s National Crime Agency said the funds were frozen after the transaction raised suspicions, without naming the banks involved.
Standard Chartered, which has operations across Asia and Africa, ended its dollar-clearing operations with banks in Angola in December 2015 because it deemed it too risky. Singapore said last week its central bank had imposed penalties of nearly $5m on Standard Chartered Bank and Standard Chartered Trust (Singapore) for breaching money laundering rules and terrorism financing safeguards.
HSBC’s move to freeze the accounts and work with authorities to return the funds will reinforce the lender’s assertion that its efforts to improve financial controls are bearing fruit.
The bank paid $1.9 bn in fines to US authorities in 2012 and agreed to install an independent monitor to improve its antimoney laundering controls after it was used to launder Mexican cartel drug money.
A five-year period in which the bank faced criminal prosecution if it breached US compliance rules again ended in December.