Isabel Dos Santos betrayal of Angola
Angola is a nation rich in natural resources, being one of Africa’s major oil and diamond producers. Following a 27 year-long civil war, the country has been looking to grow their economy during this peacetime to improve their infrastructure and citizens quality of life, which is currently very poor, with life expectancy rates of 61 years and approximately 30% of the population living on less than $1.90 per day.
Isabel Dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman and daughter of the country’s former President has been recently accused of corruptly siphoning huge sums of money out of Angola and into her own hands. While Dos Santos father was leader, she was given access to fruitful arrangements on oil, diamonds and various other state assets. These accusations have derived from intel based on the so-called ‘Luanda Leaks’ produced by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) which were released on the 19th of January, detailing over 715,000 documents from her business empire.
These documents suggest that after Dos Santos was sacked from her role at Sonangol, an Angolan state-owned oil company, that she approved a suspicious $58m payment to a consultancy firm in Dubai called Matter Business Solutions, which was under ownership of one of her close friends. Dubai Matter Solutions have provided an explanation for this rather suspect transaction in claiming that they were brought in to help restructure Sonangol. Furthermore, these leaked documents additionally exposed her involvement in more than 400 companies operating in 41 different countries, with 94 of those being in secrecy jurisdictions such as Hong Kong and Malta.
Amazingly, Dos Santos is not only summoned for claims of foul play in the oil industry but also in the Angolan diamond market, with her husband, Sindika Dokolo being involved with state-owned diamond company Sodiam. Dos Santos is alleged to have used $79m of funds from Sodiam to buy a share of Swiss luxury jeweller, De Grisogono. To make things look even worse for Dos Santos, Sodiam borrowed these funds from her own private bank and so the 9% interest paid on the loan meant it would leave her in an even more potent financial position.
Following these leaks, Angola’s prosecutor general, Helder Pitra Gros has promised to get Dos Santos back to Angola to face trial for her alleged offences. He stated, “We will use all possible means and activate international mechanisms to bring Isabel dos Santos back to the country”. This effort to bring Dos Santos back to Angola could prove difficult as she currently lives between Lisbon and London.
In response to these accusations, Dos Santos has stated in an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera that this “is an attack coordinated with foreign media that is working with the Angolan authorities to create a false perception of my business”. She has also responded to the many who claim that she is betraying the suffering Angolan population in saying “I have built over 10 commercial companies in Angola. Companies in retail - so supermarkets, cinemas, shopping malls, media and telecoms…I have over 20,000 employees…I am one of Angola's largest taxpayers”.
However, despite Dos Santos utter denial of felonious activity, she is already facing large consequences based on these accusations with PwC announcing they have ended business with her and Portuguese bank, EuroBic likewise.
by Oliver Watt