The list of crimes never ends. Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of former Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos, has been formally charged with fraud, embezzlement and money laundering by the Angolan courts. She will also face charges of influence peddling, misuse of corporate assets and forgery of documents during her term as head of the public oil group Sonangol, said Attorney General Helder Pitta Gros on Wednesday January 22 at a conference. Press.

In Lisbon, where Helder Pitta Gros went on Thursday to meet his Portuguese counterpart, the police announced the probable death by "suicide" of a Portuguese banker, whose name appears in the "Luanda Leaks" and who worked for the Eurobic bank, of which Isabel dos Santos is the main shareholder. Nuno Ribeiro da Cunha was the account manager of Isabel dos Santos who, according to Eurobic, intends to sell its stake in the bank.

Bringing the "princess" back to Angola

The Angolan justice ensured to mobilize "all the possible means" to bring back to Angola and to judge Isabel dos Santos, who lives mainly between London and Dubai since the retirement of the capacity of her father in August 2017. The investigations carried out by the Angolan justice have started when his successor at the head of Sonangol, Carlos Saturnino, had denounced "illicit transfers of funds" and other suspicious procedures.

According to the prosecution, the justice system has identified five suspects in this case, including Isabel dos Santos, who live abroad. "For the moment, the problem is to notify them of their indictment and to obtain their voluntary return to Angola," said prosecutor Gros. "Isabel dos Santos has so far never expressed a willingness to collaborate with the Angolan authorities," said the prosecutor.

ICIJ Revelations

The details of the alleged embezzlement of Isabel dos Santos - who denounced a "fabric of lies" mounted for political reasons - had been revealed by the "Luanda Leaks" published Sunday by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

The consortium's 36 international media outlets mobilized 120 journalists in around 20 countries to exploit a leak of 715,000 documents and reveal "how an army of Western financial companies, lawyers, accountants, civil servants and management companies helped "this 46-year-old woman" hiding assets from the tax authorities ".

With AFP

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