Isabelle dos Santos, 47, the richest woman in Africa, is expected to recover her frozen funds confiscated by both the Angolan and Portuguese governments. Santos is the daughter of the former Angolan president, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, 78, who has ruled this former Portuguese oil-rich colony for 38 years until 2017, and her wealth is estimated at $ 2.4 billion.
And last year, the Angolan authorities confiscated local bank accounts of Dos Santos, and her husband, an antique dealer, Cendica Ducolo (48 years old), after being accused of concluding deals with state-owned companies that cost the Treasury $ 1.14 billion. In February, prosecutors in Portugal sued her and froze assets that he believed represented a large portion of her wealth. Santos and Ducolo denied any wrongdoing.
Dos Santos is demanding that corruption charges be dropped against her, after the lawyers discovered forged documents in the prosecution files that were used to seize their assets. She publicly revealed a false passport bearing her photograph and signature of Bruce Lee, the famous karate actor and hero who died in 1973, as evidence that the case was "fabricated" against her.
She told The Times that her Angolan lawyer had found the passport and other forged documents, when they were given access to court files related to the freezing of their assets. "The passport was not rigorously forged, and any untrained eye in a few minutes can see it as a fake," she said. "This is just a rude example of the types of evidence that the Angolan authorities use as primary and material evidence in the courts." She said the passport contains at least six errors, including an incomplete name, two different identification numbers and a wrong birth date. Santos added that it was used by an online fraudster claiming to represent its interests, after he applied for a loan from a Japanese company. She claimed that the Angolan and Portuguese authorities used the passport to target their bank accounts and commercial interests, ranging from trade in diamonds to banking activities to mobile phones. The Prosecutor's Office in Angola confirmed in a statement that Santos faces many civil and criminal cases in which the state claims more than five billion dollars. Leaked documents in January sparked allegations of suspicious deals between the corrupt former president's regime and a network of offshore companies linked to his daughter and husband. Emails, contracts, audits and accounts, known as Luanda Lakes and obtained by a charity anti-corruption charity, indicate that Santos has obtained from the authorities lucrative deals of oil, land and diamonds, while the people of Angola live in poverty.
Santos' troubles have arisen since her father's successor, Joao Lorenko, 66, came to power. She denied collecting her wealth from anything other than "hard work", and accused the Angolan authorities of launching "a witch hunt to discredit her father's legacy."
Leaked documents in January raise allegations of suspicious deals between the former Angolan regime and a network of offshore companies linked to his daughter and husband.