"I set up the company to provide an outlet for the Portuguese companies' products." Carla Castelo Trindade's explanation was blunt. The Portuguese lecturer had taught José Leiria, formerly chairman of Angola's General Tax Administration, or AGT, and now secretary of state for tax affairs. Business between AGT and In Pressionante Kianda generated invoices for three cotton candy machines, of which the company's Angolan manager says he received only one, and transfers of hundreds of thousands of euros to Portugal.

Part I examined how Carla brought her husband's businesses to AGT and prepared deals before Kianda was incorporated. This second instalment follows the invoices and the money.

A ready market

The children's fair, Cidade dos Kandengues Tributários, had been included in AGT's 2024 communications plan, put out to public tender in November 2023 for 1 billion kwanzas. In messages reviewed by Maka Angola, Carla boasted of helping draft and manipulate the tender to secure Kianda's victory. Correspondence documented in earlier reporting also implicates AGT's leadership in manipulating the process. The contract was signed on 22 April 2024, with 222.3 million kwanzas allocated to four more children's fairs.

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Carla had already explained Kianda's purpose to its Angolan partner Salvador Pascoal. Her statement about providing an outlet for the Portuguese companies' products came in a message dated 27 February 2024. The invoices that followed would serve that purpose.

Check OLX

In April, the search for equipment continued. On 14 April, Carla shared advertisements from OLX, an online classifieds platform: a used bouncy castle for €850 and popcorn and cotton candy carts for €90. "Check OLX," she instructed. "We need to check the alternatives."

The next day, her husband, Mário Martins, asked about the cotton candy and popcorn equipment. Carla warned that "Kianda has no money". On 16 April, they were still weighing purchase against rental. "Should we buy? Or rent?" Mário asked. At 7.01pm, the reply was recorded: "We'll buy."

On 17 April, In Pressionante Unipessoal invoiced Kianda for €111,447.20. Invoice FT 2024A1/618 included a bouncy castle at €2,020, a popcorn machine at €1,050 and a cotton candy machine at the same price. It stated that the goods and services had been made available to the buyer that day. The invoice preceded the AGT contract by five days and followed the decision to buy by one.

Quotations obtained in Portugal in late May and early June offered a new cotton candy machine for €300 plus VAT and a popcorn machine for €599 plus VAT.

On 11 June, another Portuguese company in the group, In Pressionante Wood & Metal, issued invoice FT 2024A1/2 for about €391,798. It listed two more cotton candy machines among dozens of items. Across the two invoices, Kianda was billed more than €8,000 for three machines. João dos Santos, its then manager, says he received only one.

Following the transfer

On 9 August 2024, dos Santos and fellow manager Maria Filipa de Quadros signed an instruction to Banco Caixa Angola to transfer €352,618.84 to Wood & Metal against its invoice. On 15 August, Tânia Ermitão, responsible for the Portuguese company's finances, urgently repeated the request.

On 12 September, dos Santos notified the bank of a dispute between the shareholders and asked it to disregard the authorisations for overseas transfers he had signed. A bank confirmation dated the following day recorded the transfer. It named Unipessoal as the beneficiary, rather than Wood & Metal, the company identified on both the invoice and the managers' instruction.

The invoice also listed 98,000 promotional banknotes, 34 tablets and 16 televisions. Dos Santos says much of the invoiced merchandise never reached him.

A review by Kianda's former accountant lists five invoices from the Portuguese companies, issued between June 2023 and July 2024, totalling €662,231.82: €140,587 in 2023 and €521,644.82 in 2024. Beside each, the accountant recorded the same observation: "No customs-clearance document."

Another invoice raises questions about what AGT was buying. On 18 July 2024, Kianda billed the authority 470 million kwanzas, including 160 million for strategic consultancy. "As the company's manager, I never signed any contract with AGT to provide that consultancy. It is fraud," dos Santos says. The invoice charged another 160 million kwanzas for the Peça Factura, or "Ask for an Invoice", campaign. He says he signed no contract for that either.

The agreement dated 22 May 2023 between Kianda and Unipessoal, invoked to justify bank transfers, specified services for producing and staging fairs and supplying materials for them.

AGT's contracts continued. On 28 July 2025, it extended the communications contract for twelve months at a further 1.15 billion kwanzas. The initial award and this renewal totalled 2.15 billion kwanzas. On 27 May 2026, AGT initiated another twelve-month renewal; its value does not appear in the letter reviewed by Maka Angola.

The denial and the documents

Carla denied any connection with Kianda in her response to Maka Angola. Yet her involvement runs throughout the correspondence: presenting the companies to AGT's chairman, preparing proposals, allocating tasks, discussing purchases, negotiating with officials and introducing herself to the bank as responsible for Kianda's finances.

A declaration issued by Quadros on 9 August 2023 adds to that record. It identified the personnel requested to provide Kianda with technical and management support. Mário was listed as managing partner; Carla as finance director; Quadros as marketing director; Fernando Emídio Matos Silva as administrative and financial assistant; and Ruben Pardal Ângelo as production director. The declaration went to AGT and Banco Caixa Angola but was not included in Kianda's commercial registry record.

Leiria, Nerethz Tati, Quadros and Finance Minister Vera Daves did not respond to Maka Angola's questionnaires.

What the evidence may mean

Rui Verde, Maka Angola's legal analyst, argues that the reported facts point to serious indications of economic and financial crime, breaches of public duty and institutional capture at AGT.

He sees inflated equipment charges as a potential sign of embezzlement through overbilling. Invoices for goods that, according to the manager, were not delivered also raise the possibility of aggravated fraud involving public resources, he argues. The missing customs-clearance documents deepen his concern that some goods may never have entered Angola and that invoices may have served instead to move money abroad. He identifies possible money laundering in the dealings between the Portuguese companies and Kianda.

Verde considers Leiria's role particularly serious. He argues that facilitating access and approving proposals before Kianda's incorporation breached duties of legality, impartiality and transparency under Angola's public probity law. The relationship with his former teacher, he says, created an undeclared and unmanaged conflict of interest.

The conduct of other AGT officials, including Tati and Bráulio Assis, also demands scrutiny. Verde points to the pressure against financial checks and the disparaging references to board member Roberta Malaquias, who sought to establish what AGT had already paid for, as signs of institutional tolerance of practices that favour private interests.

He regards the lack of a public response from political and judicial authorities, including President João Lourenço, who promoted Leiria, as evidence of weakened oversight and institutional capture. In his assessment, the repeated transfer of public resources abroad harms Angola's economy.

A fair meant to teach children the value of taxes has exposed how adults handle taxpayers' money. Three cotton candy machines on the invoices; one received, according to the manager. Between Angola and Portugal, hundreds of thousands of euros. The institution charged with collecting public revenue has become a channel for its extraction into private hands.