A Portuguese magistrate at the Central Department of Investigation and Penal Action (DCIAP) is suspected of receiving €200,000 on the same day as he shelved an investigation into the Vice President of Angola, Manuel Vicente.
The investigation had involved tracing the origins of the money used by Vincente to buy a multi-million euro apartment at the exclusive Estoril Sol Residence.
Orlando Figueira, the former prosecutor working at the Central Department of Investigation and Penal Action (DCIAP), was responsible until 2012 for investigating various figures in the Angolan government.
He was arrested on Tuesday for accepting bribes in the form of two bank transfers received on the same day he shelved a criminal investigation into Manuel Vicente, the current Vice President of Angola, and other defendants.
In turn, Vicente is suspected of corrupting the magistrate, but has not been accused of any crime to date.
Other incidents involving the cancellation of investigations into prominent Angolan figures and others are said to be under investigation with national media today claiming that Figueira may have received up to €1 million in illicit payments for these services.
This is the first time in the history of DCIAP, an elite department of the public prosecutor dedicated to the most complex investigations of white-collar and organised crime, that one of its employees has been arrested as part of a criminal proceeding.
It is also the first time that an Angolan government official has been suspected of corruption in Portugal despite the waves of funds hitting Portugal’s shores from the discredited regime.
Operation Fizz has uncovered a trail of money from Sonagol, the Angolan State oil company, whose subsidiary Primagest made the transfers directly to the bank account of Orlando Figueira at a time when Sonagol was run by Manuel Vicente.
"In theory research, Manuel Vicente is the corrupter," said Figueira’s lawyer Paulo Amaral Blanco, adding that the Angolan Vice President is not in Portugal at the moment so could not be arrested.
The transfers were made on January 16th, 2012, the same day that the Orlando Figueira of DCIAP shelved a criminal investigation of money laundering in connection with Manuel Vicente.
The money was deposited into an account at Banco Privado Atlântico Europe - the Portuguese branch of the Angolan BPA - whose beneficiary was Orlando Figueira.
These amounts later were declared as ‘income from employment.’
The investigation started in 2011 following a complaint to the prosecutor by the Angolan historian, university professor and former ambassador Adriano Parreira with support from the journalist Rafael Marques.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Attorney General's Office (PGR) confirmed the completion of a number of searches at private properties, lawyers’ offices and a bank, that 11 attorneys, eight judges and 60 Judicial Police inspectors had been involved and that "an arrest was made."
"The facts of the investigation indicate suspicion of the bribery, money laundering and computer fraud," read a statement from the PGR, which added: "at issue is the receipt of a payment by a Public prosecutor (currently on long-term license to work elsewhere since September 2012).”
The long-term alternative employment was at MilleniumBCP, whose largest shareholder is Sonangol and where Orlando Figueira has been a consultant to the compliance department since 2012.
