Billionaire Isabel dos Santos, daughter of the former Angolan president already under investigation in his country, is accused of "siphoning the coffers of the country", in an investigation by the International Consortium of Journalists investigation (ICIJ), published Sunday January 19. A fabric of "lies", she said.
The 36 international media members of the consortium, including the BBC, the New York Times and Le Monde, mobilized 120 journalists in twenty countries to exploit a leak of 715,000 documents and reveal "how an army of Western financial companies, d "Lawyers, accountants, civil servants and management companies helped" this 46-year-old woman "to hide assets from the tax authorities".
The "Luanda Leaks", named after the capital of Angola, were able to see the light of day thanks to a data leak orchestrated by one or anonymous from the financial management company Isabel dos Santos based in Portugal, "probably from hacking, "according to Le Monde.
The one nicknamed the "Princess of Luanda" was already on the radar of justice in many countries. The ICIJ investigation overwhelms him by revealing new details on the financial arrangements used, as well as the names of the companies that helped him and the amounts involved.
The daughter of José Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled Angola with an iron fist for 38 years (1979-2017), had seen his bank accounts and assets in Angolan businesses frozen in December.
A real "grabbing scheme of public wealth"
Angolan justice suspects her of having embezzled, with her Danish husband of Congolese origin Sindika Dokolo, more than a billion dollars from the accounts of the public companies Sonangol (oil) and Endiama (diamond) to feed her own business. Isabel dos Santos was appointed in 2016 by her father to the head of the company Sonangol.
Thanks to what Le Monde describes as a "nebula made up of 400 companies identified in 41 countries", Isabel Dos Santos had set up a real "grabbing scheme of public wealth".
The ICIJ investigation reveals, among other things, that Western consulting firms, such as PwC and Boston Consulting Group, "apparently ignored the red flags", helping the "Princess of Luanda" to hide public property. The investigation is based on censored letters that show how big names among the consultants, such as Boston Consulting or KPMG, sought to open non-transparent bank accounts for him.
In early January, the Portuguese justice system also announced the opening of an investigation into the businesswoman, who has interests in many companies in the country, for laundering public money. "Monaco did the same recently for the same reasons," according to Le Monde.
Isabel dos Santos denounces a "witch hunt"
The woman who is considered by the American magazine Forbes as the richest woman in Africa herself denounced to BBC Africa a "witch hunt", intended to discredit them, her and her father.
She also replied, via around thirty tweets in Portuguese and English. In the first, she says: "My 'fortune' was born from my character, my intelligence, education, work capacity, perseverance. I continue today (Sunday) to see with sadness 'racism' and 'prejudices' of SIC-Expresso (the television and the Portuguese weekly member of the ICIJ, note), which recalls the era of the "colonies" in which no African was equal to a European ".
She then attacked in detail the story published by the two journalists of these media by accusing them by name of "lies" on certain points of her management at the head of Sonangol.
Isabel Dos Santos also believes that this is "information" that leaked the Angolan secret services to manipulate the ICIJ, in favor of a political agenda of the Angolan authorities ".
His lawyer also refuted the ICIJ accusations, denouncing to the British newspaper The Guardian a "perfectly coordinated attack" by the current leader of Angola, Joao Lourenço, who launched himself in a spectacular fight against corruption.
With AFP
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