- Research: EL MUNDO locates Paesa's partner in Angola in the looting of 100 million euros from Defex
- Investigation: The sewer of arms sales: officials hid the State (and robbed) 61 million
- Research Market: corrupt in seven countries
Time is running out for Guilherme Taveira. The fugitive of two of the biggest corruption cases of recent years, Portuguese with two passports (from Portugal and Angola), has a search, detention and imprisonment order on him. The National Court has decreed an International Detention Order and a European Detention and Delivery Order on Taveira, which this newspaper found living in Luanda, the capital of Angola.
Taveira has been the commission agent in the cases investigated by judge José de la Mata and the prosecutor Anticorrupción Conrado Sáiz on two public companies belonging to the SEPI: Defex and Mercasa. These state-owned companies, unknown to most people, were engaged in two very different tasks: arms exports and the creation of supply markets. Both companies had their business abroad, and specifically in Angola, where Taveira has very good contacts with the authorities.
Therefore, only in the case of Defex it is estimated that around 61 million euros could be stolen, thanks to bribes to Angolan rulers (with only one contract in Angola, but there are another 20 contracts investigated in more countries); in the case of Mercasa, the possible fraud could be much greater, since the contract was much more succulent.
For example, during the investigation, the alleged payment of 10 million to the former president of Angola, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, emerged ; also the bribe with "cookie boxes full of bills" to a minister of that country. The suspicious contract, which consisted of building a supply market in Luanda, is estimated, according to the researchers' calculations, at around 500 million.
A novel character
In these two cases, the UCO and UDEF investigators who have followed the money trail have run into Taveira; someone with enough contacts to know who to pay in a country like Angola, where "certain businesses cannot be done without paying" bites, as recognized by various experts in foreign trade.
Taveira is a dark character, about 65 years old, who is credited with being much more than he seems: very hardworking, but also a tough guy, willing to make life impossible for those who harm him.
Legend has it that he was a spy (and in fact in this case the niece of the famous spy Francisco Paesa, who faked his death and hid Roldán in the 90s), war veteran in Mozambique, friend of the highest positions in Spain of the Ministry of the Interior in the 80s and 90s, with proximity to others of much more recent years ... Once he set up a visit of the Pope to Angola and took the opportunity to stay a money in commissions.
A dark character, yes, but also fast: in 2013, the Luxembourg Police called him to his house on the outskirts of Lisbon to come to testify about strange payments from the arms company Defex. There were three transfers that totaled 41 million euros but did not add up anywhere.
Taveira obediently appeared there and declared, but sensed that something was wrong.
The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office investigated these banking movements in Spain. When, in the summer of 2014, UCO agents and the Portuguese Police went to arrest all those involved, Taveira had flown. His house, in the town of Linda-a-Velha, was empty and closed.
Two years later, in 2016, his whereabouts remained a mystery. However, it seemed logical that he could have taken refuge in Angola, which does not have an extradition treaty with Spain, although that would not prevent a Spanish petition from provoking the collaboration of its authorities.
Taveira lived in Luanda, and he already weighed a claim from Interpol that may have prevented him from leaving Angola in all this time, unless he used false documentation and his contacts. Otherwise, it could have already been stopped at any airport or border post.
And, indeed, there he found this newspaper in October 2016, continuing in his work, the company Sonadi, which supposedly served as a cover to pay the bribes. Subsequently, several more companies were discovered in his name, including some in tax havens.
However, Prosecutor Sáiz and Judge De la Mata have now taken another step with this new claim: Taveira has an order to enter prison, after, aware that they are looking for him, he has refused to come to Spain repeatedly. Good proof of how he knows our country is that he hired a prestigious law firm to learn that he was still being sought, and through them he has tried to negotiate his non-detention.
On that occasion, the order of November 2 to order his detention and imprisonment at the request of the prosecutor, attributes, only in the case of Mercasa, having collected at least 20 million in commissions. Of those 20, five are not justified at all and it is suspected that they were to bribe Angola's officials and authorities, as well as to enrich themselves.
On the other hand, the prosecutor Sáiz says in his report that many of the services contracted with Taveira were very similar, which gives rise to think that in fact he did not provide hardly any. In fact, service contracts not provided are one of the most common methods of hiding illegal commissions: it is difficult to verify the supposed advice of a person, or put a price on that task.
Angola's contract in the Defex case will be judged shortly. 24 people and three companies will sit on the bench for that contract, which consisted of selling police equipment to the Government of Angola worth 152 million. Of the total, only about 59 were invested in the contract, while the profit was 94 million, which gives an idea of the wide margins with which Defex played. If not, the state company preferred not to enter the business.
Finally, after uncovering so much corruption, the Government decided in 2017 to dissolve the public company, because its reputation was already unrecoverable. Therefore, it is also not expected that another state company collects the witness for arms export contracts. At present, the most commonly used formula is the so-called G to G, or "from Government to Government", where the relationship of trust and solidity allows different states to accompany companies to do business abroad.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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