Angola: país onde se constroem grandes fortunas

Angolan Anti-corruption campaigners are taking legal action in Switzerland and Angola over a debt deal with Russia that robbed the country of over US$700 million. Some of the money was diverted into the pockets of President dos Santos and other Angolan officials. The Angolans have filed a criminal complaint with the Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office in Berne, asking it to reopen an earlier investigation into the deal, on the basis of new information contained in a report - Deception in High Places - released by Corruption Watch UK and Associação Mãos Livres, an Angolan anti-corruption group. What was the debt deal? In 1996 Angola signed a deal with Russia to restructure its $5bn Soviet-era debt, to reduce its debt to $1.5bn; Angola would pay off the debt over 15 years beginning 2001(together with $1.39bn interest for the period through 2016). Russia then engaged an entirely unnecessary intermediary, Abalone Investments, which was based in the Isle of Man and set up purely to service this deal. Abalone arranged to buy the debt from Russia for only $750m (with no interest payment), but to complete purchase of the debt by 2006. However, Angola paid Abalone the full $1.5bn to write off the debt - with the extra funds being corruptly siphoned off to the people involved in Abalone, senior Angolan officials and others. Abalone was set up by Arcadi Gaydamak and Pierre Falcone, two well-connected and controversial businessmen who had close links with Angolan officials thanks to their involvement in what would become the separate Angolagate arms and oil scandal. (They paid Russia $4.5m for the right to set the Deal up). How did the deal work? Angola gave Russia 31 Promissory Notes (IOUs) worth $1.5bn, which it planned to buy back over 15 years from 2001-2016. Instead, Abalone would buy them from Russia over 7 years, from 1997 to 2004 at half price. But Angola paid Abalone the full amount to write off the IOUs, with payments coming from Angola's state oil company, Sonangol. So Abalone made a 50 per cent mark-up, with no significant risk. Indeed, with no risk since it only bought the IOUs from Russia after it had received payment from Angola. In fact, Abalone provided no service whatsoever to justify its $750m 'profit'. The deal could have been done directly between Russia and Angola. Why would anyone want to set up a Deal like that? There is no obvious explanation for why Russia would accept only half of the agreed payment when Angola was clearly prepared to (and did pay) the full amount. It is also unclear why Russia would involve Abalone - an unnecessary intermediary, which provided no real service and took on no risk. However, in December 1999, Vitaly Malkin, a Russian oligarch and senior member of the Russian parliament (the Duma) secured a 25 per cent stake in Abalone. Open Society Iniciative for Souther Africa