Angola Gets $500 Million From HSBC Account Frozen Due to Fraud

LUANDA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Angola has recouped $500 million that was frozen in an HSBC Holdings Plc account in London linked to an alleged fraud, the Finance Ministry said.

The funds were part of $1.5 billion that the Angolan government was to pay Mais Financial Services, a company managed by a person close to Jose Filomeno dos Santos, the son of Angola’s former president, for the start-up of a $35 billion strategic investment fund for state projects and another that would place $300 million weekly in the local currency market, the ministry said in an emailed statement Monday.

In August, the southern African nation paid the funds into the HSBC account held by Perfect Bit, a company contracted by Mais. The ministry then conducted a due-diligence exercise and found that Perfec tBit was a dormant company, it said. Former central bank Governor Valter Filipe da Silva then asked HSBC to freeze the funds held in the account.

Angolan authorities are working on recouping a further 24.85 million euros ($31 million) that were transferred into an account held by Mais.

Source: Bloomberg Business News