Quantum Must Explain Angolan Wealth Fund Payments to U.K. Judge

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – A U.K. judge told a Swiss asset management firm that it has until next week to explain hundreds of payments as U.K., Swiss and Angolan authorities probe what happened to billions of dollars of assets intended for an Angolan economic development fund.

Quantum Global, which had a mandate to manage assets for the Fundo Soberano de Angola and the National Bank of Angola, must turn over details of every transaction of more than $100,000 by July 4, Judge Stephen Phillips said Monday in a London court.

Angolan President Joao Lourenco is seeking to recoup billions in state assets stolen or misappropriated before he took office last year. Jose Filomeno dos Santos, the son of former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, said in March he’d cooperate with authorities after prosecutors charged him with fraud for allegedly transferring $500 million from state coffers to the London branch of a Swiss bank.

Dos Santos was a close friend of Quantum Global founder Jean Claude Bastos de Morais. The Angolan-Swiss financier was indicted last month by Angola’s state prosecutor, on charges related to the management of country’s sovereign wealth fund, the Jornal Expansao reported. The wealth fund has already recovered assets worth $1.65 billion from Quantum Global, Expansao reported in March.

Charges against Bastos de Morais were filed in connection with the Angolan sovereign wealth fund on May 21 after immigration authorities seized de Morais’ passport three days earlier when he tried to board a Europe-bound flight, Luanda-based Expansao reported.

Justice Phillips said it was “inexcusable” that Quantum Global hadn’t informed him of the difficulties of providing this information before the hearing.

Phillips issued a $3 billion freeze order against Dos Santos, Bastos de Morais, and Quantum Global on April 27. The order also required Quantum to give details of its assets.

Lawyers for Quantum Global said Tuesday that it was a huge task and unrealistic to expect the firm could provide all that information by the deadline. An email left for an outside PR person who represents Quantum Global and De Bastos de Morais, was not immediately returned.

Swiss police last month raided the offices of Quantum Global, Handelszeitung reported last month. Swiss federal prosecutors confirmed they conducted searches after opening a criminal probe in April into “persons unknown” suspected of laundering money held by the Angolan wealth fund and the national bank but declined to specify where the raids took place.

Source: Bloomberg Business News