Angola court orders assets of ex-President's daughter bought with nation’s stolen oil wealth, seized

Angola court orders assets of ex-President’s daughter bought with nation’s stolen oil wealth, seized

Dec 29, 2022 News

(Al Jazeera) Angola’s Supreme Court has ordered the ‘preventive’ seizure of assets worth about $1bn held by Isabel dos Santos, the Daughter of its former President, Portugal’s Lusa News Agency said on Tuesday.

The court document cited by Lusa, dated December 19, said Authorities had evidence of alleged embezzlement and money laundering and ordered the seizure of the money dos Santos holds in ‘all banking institutions’.

The seizure also includes all of dos Santos’s shares in Angolan company, Embalvidro, as well as 100 percent of shares in Cape Verde’s telecom company Unitel T+ and Unitel STP in Sao Tome and Principe, according to Lusa.

A total of 70 percent of her shares in Mozambique’s telecom MStar and Upstar Comunicacoes should be seized too, Lusa said.

For years, dos Santos, once Africa’s richest woman, has faced corruption accusations. In 2019, Angola’s Supreme Court ordered the seizure of her assets for allegedly steering state funds to companies in which she held stakes during her father’s Presidency, including oil giant, Sonangol.

Her father, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, a former freedom fighter who led Angola from Marxism to crony capitalism, died in July. He ruled Angola for almost four decades until 2017.

A spokesperson for dos Santos did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

She has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and told CNN Portugal in November that the courts in Angola were ‘not independent’ and that Judges there were “used to fulfil a political agenda”.

In November, Global Police Agency, Interpol, issued a red notice for dos Santos, asking Global Law Enforcement Authorities to locate and provisionally arrest her.

In a 2020, Luanda Leaks Investigation, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists revealed that dos Santos and her husband, Sindika Dokolo, had obtained the stake in the Portuguese oil company, Galp, for just a $15 million initial deposit, in a controversial deal made with Angola’s state oil company — overseen at the time by dos Santos’ father, Angola’s then-President, Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

Luanda Leaks reporting showed how insider deals, political connections and an army of Western enablers helped dos Santos amass a fortune. The exposé revealed how the billionaire and her allies benefited from lucrative deals in diamonds, telecommunications, banking and real estate.

The inside dealmaking that led to the acquisition of the Galp shares, revealed in part through leaked documents, was featured in the Luanda Leaks reporting.

In 2006, Angola’s state oil company, Sonangol, sold 40% of its interest in joint venture company, Esperaza to Exem Energy, a Dutch firm owned by Dokolo. Sonangol then sold to Dokolo’s company a $99 million stake for an initial $15 million deposit. That same stake is now worth more than $500 million.

The deal was “tainted by illegality, enabling Ms. dos Santos directly or through her husband, Mr. Dokolo, while using her position as daughter of the Angolan President … to reap an extraordinary financial gain to the detriment of … Angola,” according to the ruling.

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