Angola-Russia Debt Deal

In 2011, Corruption Watch was approached with a cache of documents that exposed one of the most egregious cases of financial crime and corruption we had encountered.

The documents told the detailed story of how, via the insertion of dubious middlemen into a Debt Deal between Russia and Angola, hundreds of millions of dollars were diverted from the treasuries of both Russia and Angola (one of the poorest countries in the world) and into the pockets of businessmen, arms dealers and serving politicians, all ably facilitated by global banks in secrecy jurisdictions ranging from Switzerland to Cyprus.

Together with Associação Mãos Livres (ML), a human rights organization based in Luanda with offices in Cabinda and Huambo, we present the full story of the Corrupt Angola-Russia Debt Deal.

Key Players

The Middlemen

Arcadi Gaydamak

Co-owner of Abalone Investments

Pierre Falcone

Co-owner of Abalone Investments

Vitaly Malkin

Co-owner of Abalone Investments

Joelle Mamane

Financial Administrator of Abalone Investments and other Gaydamak Entities


The Angolan Officials

José Eduardo dos Santos

President of Angola

José Leitão da Costa e Silva

Minister in the Office of the Presidency

Elísio de Figueiredo

Ambassador without Portfolio

Joaquim Duarte da Costa David

Director General of Sonangol and Minister of Finance

José Carlos de Castro Paiva

Director General of Sonangal UK

José Pedro de Morais Jr

Client Subtitle


The Russian Officials

Mikhail Kasyanov

Deputy Minister of Finance, Minister of Finance

Alexei Kudrin

Minister of Finance