The public prosecutor’s office in Lisbon, Portugal has ordered the freezing of the Isabel dos Santo and Congolese husband. Dos Santo, Africa’s richest woman and daughter of Angola’s former president is under investigation by the Angolan government for fraud and embezzlement.
“The public prosecutors have ordered a freeze on the bank accounts following a request by Angolan authorities,” a spokesman for Portuguese public prosecutors announced in a statement on Tuesday, according to local media reports. The public prosecutor office said the order was part of a “request for international judicial cooperation from Angolan authorities.”
In January, Angola’s Attorney General Helder Pitta Gros visited Portugal to seek the help of Portuguese authorities in the case. During a state visit by the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, the president of Angola Joao Lourenco stated that his government was fighting to recover assets taken illegally from the country and is seeking overseas assistance.
Angolan prosecutors have indicted Mrs Dos Santos for a host of top-level financial crimes, including money laundering and forging documents. In December, an Angolan court froze the local assets of Dos Santos, those of her husband and one of her executives after allegations arose that they had engaged in deals with state-owned companies that cost the state $1.14 billion.
On January 19, 2020. the International Consortium of Investigative Journalist’s investigation – ICIJ published a trove of documents dubbed the Luanda Leaks, linking Dos Santos widespread corruption. The document exposed how she siphoned billions of dollars from Angola, one of the world’s poorest countries.
Isabel dos Santos is accused of transferring tens of millions of dollars from Sonangol to a Dubai company controlled by one of her close associates on the day dos Santos was sacked as head of the oil company. She and her associates are also accused of stealing about $1.1 billion from state coffers.
Dos Santas denies and claims the charges are politically motivated. The says she will fight the charges and has taken steps “to act legally” against the outlets that published the the “Luanda Leaks”.
The ICIJ, this week reported that, ” Over the past few weeks, the beleaguered billionaire has sold significant assets in Portugal, including a majority stake in the publicly listed electrical engineering company, Efacec, and a controlling share in Eurobic, a bank under investigation by Portuguese regulators.”
The 46-year-old daughter of the former president of Angola, Eduardo dos Santos and London-educated engineer has an estimated net worth of about $2 billion, according to Bloomberg. She and her husband Sindika Dokolo moved to London after Angolan President Joao Lourenco fired her as head of the state oil company Sonangol in 2017, soon after he took over from her father.
The Portuguese prosecutors also ordered the freezing of all accounts linked to Dos Santos’ husband.
