Search Results for “general Kopelipa”

Generals demand $1.2 million damages and jail for Rafael Marques

27 de August de 2014 Maka Angola

The head of the Intelligence Bureau at the Presidency, General Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Kopelipa, six other Angolan generals and the mining company Sociedade Mineira do Cuango (SMC) are jointly demanding damages of US$1.2 million from Rafael Marques de Morais, the journalist whom they have accused of defamation. Marques de Morais went to the Luanda Provincial Court on Tuesday morning to sign the formal acknowledgement of the charges against him. The trial date will be set in the coming weeks. The generals complaint of criminal libel is solely based on the public prosecutors decision to set aside a complaint that Marques de Morais brought against the same group of generals in 2011 on the grounds of alleged crimes against humanity committed in the diamond-producing Lunda Norte province. In addition to Kopelipa, the generals who brought the complaint are Carlos Alberto Hendrick Vaal da Silva, Adriano Makevela Mackenzie, João Baptista de […]

General Zé Maria’s Partisan Plot to Destabilize the Army

2 de July de 2014 Maka Angola

For the last few months the head of Angolas Military Intelligence and Security Service (SISM), General António Zé Maria, has created a secret discussion group aimed at fostering a climate of instability within the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA), in such a way as to justify purges. This strategy is known as the purification of the FAA. The scheme also aims to divert attention away from the ever-deteriorating socio-economic situation of most Angolan citizens and the governments inability to deal with it. It also serves as a distraction from the uncertainty over when and how President dos Santos will relinquish power. Maka Angola has learnt from insiders that the other main participants in the discussion group are the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Patriotic Education, General Egídio de Sousa Santos ”Disciplina”, and Lieutenant-General João António Santana Lungo of the Security Studies Office within the Intelligence Bureau of the Presidency. […]

Politics

General Dino and the Attorney General’s Lies

20 de January de 2014 Rafael Marques de Morais

On January 6 2012 I laid a criminal complaint with the Attorney General of the Republic of Angola, against the presidential triumvirate that comprises the current vice-president Manuel Vicente, the minister of state and head of the Intelligence Bureau at the presidency (Casa de Segurança), General Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior “Kopelipa”, and the latter’s main advisor, General Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento “Dino”. The charge that I laid was of suspected illegal enrichment and abuse of power. The Attorney General’s office responded by initiating a preliminary inquiry, case number 06-A/2012-INQ, to verify the allegations about the trio’s business involvement that I made in my investigation “The Angolan Presidency: The Epicentre of Corruption”. As a result of that inquiry, the Attorney General’s Office acknowledged that the three men were shareholders in Grupo Aquattro. In less than three years, this group had come to dominate the Angolan economy, with holdings in sectors […]

Corruption

Kopelipa Kamanguista no Zimbabué

14 de November de 2013 Maka Angola

Documentos confidenciais dos serviços secretos zimbabueanos (CIO), recentemente divulgados, revelam o envolvimento central de entidades chinesas, do general Kopelipa e da Sonangol no tráfico de diamantes no Zimbabué. Trata-se de tráfico de diamantes porque a sua comercialização não passa por canais formais de venda, mas através de esquemas obscuros, incentivados pelas autoridades zimbabuenas. A investigação, levada a cabo pela jornalista sul-africana Khadija Shariffe, detalha sobretudo o apoio que os chineses, em parceria com o chefe da Casa de Segurança do Presidente da República de Angola, general Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias “Kopelipa”, prestaram ao presidente Robert Mugabe, de 89 anos, para a sua vitória eleitoral, em Julho passado. Financiamentos secretos, em troca de diamantes, e a concepção e gestão de mecanismos de fraude eleitoral constituíram os principais eixos de apoio da coligação sino-angolana. Maka Angola publica o extrato da investigação referente à participação do general Kopelipa na operação, assim como da […]

Generals Chase Journalist Over Blood Diamonds Investigation

31 de July de 2013 Maka Angola

Journalist and human rights defender Rafael Marques de Morais was interrogated today in connection with 11 criminal complaints arising from his book Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in Angola. The complaints were lodged on March 14 by seven generals whom the book names as responsible for crimes against humanity that occurred in the Lunda diamond mining region in north-eastern Angola. The complainants are led by the Minister of State and head of the Intelligence Bureau in the Presidency, Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias “Kopelipa”. The other complainants are Adriano Makevela Mackenzie, António Emílio Faceira, Armando da Cruz Neto (an MPLA parliamentarian), Carlos Alberto Hendrick Vaal da Silva (Inspector General of the General Staff of Angolan Armed Forces), João Baptista de Matos, and Luís Pereira Faceira. The private security company Teleservice, owned by the same generals, laid a collective complaint, in addition to the complaint brought by the civilian shareholder José Carlos […]

Human rights

Generals Accused of Crimes Against Humanity

16 de November de 2011 Rafael Marques de Morais

OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF ANGOLA RUA 17 DE SETEMBRO, CIDADE ALTA LUANDA MOST HONORABLE ATTORNEY-GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC GENERAL JOÃO MARIA MOREIRA DE SOUSA Rafael Marques de Morais, [personal details redacted], pursuant to the terms of article 73 of the Constitution, hereby lodges a CRIMINAL COMPLAINT Against: 1. THE PARTNERS OF THE COMPANY SOCIEDADE LUMANHE – EXTRACÇÃO MINEIRA, IMPORTAÇÃO E EXPORTAÇÃO, LIMITADA, (cf. DR, Series III, nº 33, 2004), Rua Comandante Dangereux, n.º 130, Luanda: A) GENERAL HÉLDER MANUEL VIEIRA DIAS JÚNIOR “Kopelipa”, Minister of State and Head of the Military Bureau of the Presidency of the Republic; B) GENERAL CARLOS ALBERTO HENDRICK VAAL DA SILVA, Inspector-General of the General Staff of the FAA [Angolan Armed Forces]; C) GENERAL ARMANDO DA CRUZ NETO, Governor of Benguela and former Chief of the General Staff of the FAA; D) GENERAL ADRIANO MAKEVELA MACKENZIE, Head of the Directorate for […]

Angolan ex-President’s Men Indicted over Chinese Deals

14 de July de 2022 Rui Verde

On Friday July 8, coinciding with news of the death of former Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos, it was revealed that two of his closest associates face trial on corruption charges in connection with business deals funded by the Peoples’ Republic of China to purchase Angolan oil and fund post-war reconstruction. Facing multiple criminal charges are two Angolan Generals, Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior (better known by his nom-de-guerre, ‘Kopelipa’), and Leopoldino Fragoso de Nascimento (aka General ‘Dino’) along with co-defendants including Fernando Gomes dos Santos (a lawyer), a Chinese national, You Haming, and three corporate bodies: the China International Fund (CIF) and two companies registered offshore, Plansmart and Utter Right. The indictment, signed by three prosecutors[1] from the Ministério Público (Office of Public Prosecution) on July 4, runs to 80 pages listing 233 separate clauses detailing the alleged crimes, and citing 36 named witnesses to be called […]

Vincent Miclet’s Angolan (Mis)Adventures

20 de March de 2019 Rafael Marques de Morais

When Le Monde profiled the African-born businessman Vincent Miclet in November 2018, it called him the “Gatsby” of Francophone Africa. The inference was clear: opulence and decadence combined in a single name. Gatsby was the fatally-flawed eponymous character of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, whose fabulous wealth was obtained through mysterious, possibly illegal, means and whose machinations led to his downfall. Vincent Miclet (on the main foto) was presented as somewhat exotic: a slick, fifty-something millionaire playboy, born and educated to Baccalaureate level in Africa, his business acumen, in his own words, “self-taught”. In a self-serving interview with Le Monde, Miclet hoped to portray himself as a business genius cheated by Angola’s corrupt Generals. Publication ensured numerous commentators would take a closer look. The French businessman did not respond the questionnaire . This is the first in a series of investigations by Maka Angola. BUDDIES AND BRIBES According to Liberation, Miclet […]

Corruption

Angola’s Path to Justice: Prosecuting the Guilty and Recovering the Stolen Billions

23 de October de 2018 Rafael Marques de Morais

The dramatic recent arrests of high-ranking figures linked to former Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos has gripped the public. Yet little or nothing has been revealed about the struggle to recover the billions of dollars stolen from the public purse during Dos Santos’s corrupt regime. Extensive whistleblower reports published by Maka Angola have led to numerous investigations and prosecutions across the globe to bring to justice all those who illicitly enriched themselves during the Dos Santos years. But efforts to repatriate the missing billions have been complicated by the tortuous schemes devised by the principals to obscure the money trail. One such example: Back in 2009, an Angolan company named Portmill Investimentos e Telecomunicações S.A. allegedly committed fraud in its acquisition of a majority shareholding in the Banco de Espírito Santo Angola (BESA). BESA was the Angolan subisdiary of one of Portugal’s oldest private banks, the Banco de Espírito […]

Economy

Portuguese Corruption Trial Snares Angola’s Vice President

24 de February de 2017 D. Quaresma dos Santos

The net is closing around Angola’s Vice-President, Manuel Vicente, the former CEO of the country’s oil giant Sonangol and a man long accused of being a conduit for the diversion of oil revenues into international business deals linked to the Angolan President, his family and close associates. He faces charges in connection with the alleged suborning of a Portuguese prosecutor. Orlando Figueira, in 2013 to set aside an investigation into money-laundering involving the purchase of a US $4 million luxury apartment in Lisbon. Both the prosecutor and Vicente’s lawyer, Paulo Blanco, have also been indicted on charges of violating court confidentiality regarding the investigation into the Angolan subsidiary (BESA) of the Banco de Espirito Santo (BES), which collapsed in 2014. If proven, then by suborning the prosecutor, the Angolans succeeded in interfering with the course of justice in Portugal to prevent any prosecution in the BESA investigation which, by unravelling […]

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