Angolan businessman Carlos São Vicente has been handed a nine-year prison term for embezzlement, tax fraud and money laundering by government.
The Luanda District Court also ordered him to make compensation of $500 million.
President João Lourenço had launched an anti-corruption drive to recoup assets embezzled under the previous regime.
He took over from José Eduardo dos Santos that reigned for 38 years after António Agostinho Neto, ruled Angola for four years after independence from Portugal.
Vicente who has been in custody since his arrest in September 2020 is the husband of Irene Neto, the daughter of first President Agostinho Neto.
A key figure in Angola’s oil industry, he owned a group of companies called AAA International, which sold insurance contracts to state oil company Sonangol for nearly two decades of bumper profits.
According to the country’s justice minister, São Vicente allegedly diverted more than $900 million from the Sonangol through a scheme involving his between 2000 and 2016.
The government froze his accounts and seized his assets.
The defence lawyers said they would appeal the court’s decision.
São Vicente is also under investigation in Switzerland for embezzlement and money laundering.
His wife Irene Neto, a former deputy minister, and their three sons live in Portugal.
