Isabel dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman and daughter of Angola’s former president, allegedly siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars of public money into offshore accounts, according to leaked documents.
Released on Sunday, the so-called Luanda Leaks are based on a trove of more than 715,000 emails, charts, contracts, audits and accounts obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and shared with media organizations, Al Jazeera reported.
The businesswoman — whose father, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, ruled oil-rich Angola for almost 40 years until he stood down in 2017 — vehemently dismissed the claims. The 46-year-old billionaire has long denied that her business success is the result of nepotism and corruption.
But the New York-based ICIJ said its findings highlight “a broken international regulatory system that allows professional services firms to serve the powerful with almost no questions asked.”
“Our investigation, which took eight months and more than 100 journalists to complete, found that Dos Santos, aided by her cadre of Western advisers, funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into offshore shell companies and from there into all kinds of assets, including luxury homes and big businesses,” the ICIJ’s Ben Hallman told Al Jazeera.
Dos Santos, whose business empire stretches from telecommunications to banking to construction, was appointed head of Sonangol, Angola’s state oil company, in 2016.
But she was forced out the following year, in one of the first acts undertaken by Joao Lourenco, who succeeded her father after 38 years in power.
Angola’s prosecutors last month froze bank accounts and assets owned by Dos Santos and her Congolese husband Sindika Dokolo, a move she described as a groundless political vendetta.
“Definitely this is a politically-motivated attack, there’s no doubt about that,” she told Al Jazeera on January 1.
“My father was the … president for a very long time … Unfortunately, the new people who came on board are now trying to conduct these politically motivated attacks on his family, and especially his children.”
The former president’s son, Jose Filomeno dos Santos, who is Isabel’s half-brother, went on trial in early December for alleged corruption.
On Sunday, Dos Santos used Twitter to deny the claims in the ICIJ investigation, posting some 30 tweets in Portuguese and English, accusing media of spreading “lies”.
“My fortune is built on my character, my intelligence, education, capacity for work, perseverance,” wrote Dos Santos, whose net worth last year was estimated by Forbes magazine at $2.2 billion.
Dos Santos, who has said she is considering running for president in Angola’s 2022 election, told BBC Africa the Luanda Leaks were part of a “witch-hunt” meant to discredit her and her father.
The ICIJ investigation said Western consulting firms such as PwC and Boston Consulting Group were “apparently ignoring red flags” while helping her stash away public assets.
“Regulators around the globe have virtually ignored the key role Western professionals play in maintaining an offshore industry that drives money laundering and drains trillions from public coffers,” the report said.
The document trove included redacted letters allegedly showing how consultants sought out ways to open non-transparent bank accounts.
None of the companies named in the documents issued an immediate statement in response to the investigation.
IranDaily