The jewelery company de Grisogono is known for black diamonds and lavish parties in Cannes, but despite the company exuding luxury and glamor, the economy is stalling. .

Not least in view of the benefits of being the daughter of Angola's president, with his own interests in the country's diamond mines.

- The Angolan state owns the majority of all mines, but Isabel dos Santos himself is the main partner in several mines, a former chief engineer in Angola's diamond mines, tells SVT.

The state company paid

But the investment became a flop. Luanda Leaks - the leaked documents that SVT has learned through the international investigative journalist network ICIJ - shows a company in crisis and a peculiar government investment where the bill can now end in the billion class.

"A familiar face at the Grisogonos luxury parties is the Swedish model VictoriaSilvstedt". Photo: TT

Angola's state diamond company, Sodiam, merged with dos Santo's husband and bought the majority in de Grisogono, through joint companies in Malta.

The documents show that the purchase was advantageous for the couple Santos. The agreement gave the spouse full control over the company, despite his small investment. The base plate, over SEK 400 million, instead paid Sodiam - in other words, the Angolan taxpayers.

Gave bonus to himself

The husband went in about a tenth of it. But even that investment came from Sodiam's money, paid out as a "success bonus" from their joint venture.

Later, he came to lend large sums to keep the company afloat. Despite the seemingly good conditions, de Grisogono became a failure. Sales were well below targets and the company was bleeding money, which had to be clogged again with new money from Sodiam as well.

Angola is a country with widespread poverty despite its vast natural resources. It is to a large extent Angola that has been given the understanding of the bill in the Grisogono. State diamond company Sodiam fears that its total investment of about SEK 1.2 billion has been completely lost.

Eugénio Pereira Bravo da Rosa took over as Sodiam's chairman in November 2017. According to him, Sodiam "did not earn a single dollar" on de Grisogono. He is critical of the arrangement where the husband gained control of the company despite Sodiam accounting for the money.

- It's strange, he says in an interview with one of SVT's ICIJ partners.

- I can't believe that anyone would start a business and let the partner control everything with total power over all decisions.

Several experts on corruption and money laundering have, as part of the review, looked at the documents and found a series of warning flags to which the international audit firms should respond.

Dokolo dismisses the charges

de Grisogono declined to comment on ICIJ's information. The case is also only part of the wider charges against Isabel dos Santos and Sindika Dokolo, which led Angola to freeze their assets just before the New Year. Authorities accuse dos Santos and her co-workers of owing the country a total of more than SEK 10 billion.

The dos dos Santos categorically reject all information that they acted unlawfully or incorrectly. Their lawyers write in a ten-page long letter that the charges are unfounded.

In an interview with French RFI, a partner in the review, Dokolo says that everything has gone right. According to him, the goal was to build a new diamond giant similar to South African de Beers.

- That's what we wanted to do. Creating an Angolan "de Beers" from mining to marketing. But Sodiam refused, which is one of the reasons it failed.