The Supreme Court in Angola has handed a five-year sentence to Jose Filomeno dos Santos, son of the country’s former president, over 500 million fraud.
The 42-year-old was accused of attempting to embezzle up to $1.5 billion from the sovereign wealth fund, which he oversaw from 2013 to 2018.
He was later charged with stealing $500 million from the fund, and transferring it to a bank account in Switzerland.
His father, José Eduardo, led the country for 38 years. He was president from 1979 until he resigned in 2017, and was replaced by his former defence minister, Joao Lourenço.
“For the crime of fraud … and for the crime of peddling influence … the legal cumulus condemns him to a single sentence of five years in prison,”the judge, Joao da Cruz Pitra said while delivering judgment on Friday.
Three co-defendants, including former governor of the National Bank of Angola (BNA), Valter Filipe da Silva, were sentenced to between four and six years in prison for fraud, embezzlement and influence peddling.
Dos Santos is the first member of the former presidential family to be prosecuted, as part of an anti-corruption campaign led by Lourenco, who came to power in 2017.
