Justice issues warning and arrest warrant against BCI treasurer involved in the theft of more than 100 million kz.

The accused have been released since the start of the trial, but were detained in 2022, after the Criminal Investigation Service (SIC) discovered that they were the ones who simulated a fire and stole millions of kz from the bank branch in Viana.

After appearing in the first three trial sessions, last March, one of the main defendants in the case that is being judged at the Luanda District Court and involves four employees of the Banco de Comércio e Indústria (BCI), with positions of leadership, who in February 2022 simulated a fire at the bank and stole more than 100 million kwanzas from the safe, fled and is partly uncertain, according to a source within the entity, cited by Novo Jornal.

The accused have been released since the start of the trial, but were detained in 2022, after the Criminal Investigation Service (SIC) discovered that they were the ones who simulated a fire and stole millions of kz from the bank branch in Viana. After attending the first three trial sessions, the treasurer, who is one of the main suspects in the robbery, did not return to court and fled, with the case now being uncertain, the source of the case told Novo Jornal.

The court has already issued a search and arrest warrant, but police authorities are having difficulty finding the woman. SIC sources assure that family members are covering for her, but the investigation into her arrest continues. The prosecution states that even in the presence of a multidisciplinary team from BCI, the treasurer delayed, using trickery, to open the bank's safe.

After opening it, the accusation continues, he realized that 101 million kwanzas had been stolen. An officer of the Angolan Armed Forces, belonging to the Navy, who participated in the robbery, was killed by the SIC one day after the robbery, when he was being pursued, in the Zango III area.

The bank's manager and deputy manager, the treasurer and another employee are accused in the case and accused of breach of trust, damage, computer sabotage, theft and criminal association.

To commit the crime, the defendants turned off the surveillance camera circuit and in the last act of dispersion, after taking the millions, they simulated a fire in the premises in question. The prosecution says that the defendants did not know that there was a camera that worked autonomously, which continued to film its coverage angle.

According to the prosecution, as soon as the false fire occurred, the branch manager, who was on vacation, appeared at the bank, which aroused suspicion. She said she was called by a colleague who told her that there had been a fire at the agency, which the colleague denied in court.

The 51-year-old manager denies being the main perpetrator of the crime and assures that she was "set up" by her colleagues. This crime occurred on February 16, 2022, at the BCI branch, in the main town of Viana.