Sobrinho accused of using BES money to invest in Sporting football club
Álvaro Sobrinho, former president of Banco Espírito Santo in Angola – and a self-styled philanthropist – has been charged with the offence of aggravated money laundering.
At issue is the illicit transfer of money from the bank’s accounts to invest in Sporting’s SAD (football club).
In a statement issued today, the PJ judicial police explain that Álvaro Sobrinho is the target of charges following an investigation conducted by the PJ’s National Anti-Corruption Unit, which proved the illicit transfer of €20 million from the bank to SAD.
Initially, €16 million were invested, to which another €4 million were added, also from Banco Espírito Santo de Angola, with Álvaro Sobrinho at the time holding 29.85% of the capital of Sporting’s SAD.
According to the PJ, the former president of Banco Espírito Santo de Angola ‘used a company he controlled and of which he was the majority shareholder’ to make the transfers.
“Initially, he transferred around €16 million, which was to be used to buy players for the club and then receive a percentage of their sale in return”, reads the PJ statement.
The transfers, says the PJ, were made from bank accounts based in Lisbon, “whose funds were intended to finance the bank’s activity, but which the defendant used as if they were his own”.
The net has been tightening around Álvaro Sobrinho’s former empire for a number of years now. He was accused in 2022 of embezzling hundreds of millions of euros from BES Angola to accounts that he controlled in Switzerland.
Source: SIC Notícias
