The lawyer for Isabel dos Santos, a rich person from Angola, says that the new criminal charges against her are motivated by politics.
Angola’s top lawyer has accused Ms Dos Santos of doing 12 bad things, like stealing money and lying, according to reports.
Ms Dos Santos is being accused of doing something wrong when she was in charge of a government-owned oil company.
Ms Dos Santos was in charge of Sonangol, the richest woman in Africa. She ran the company from 2016 to 2017.
She is the daughter of the ex-president of Angola, José Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled the country for 38 years until he stopped in 2017.
Critics say Ms. Dos Santos used her power in Angola to make herself rich, but she denies it.
In reply to the charges from last week, Isabel dos Santos’ lawyer, Dan Morrison, said to the media that she denies the charges and believes they were made by the Angolan government to harm her because of President João Lourenço.
During Mr Lourenço’s presidency, some of José Eduardo Dos Santos’ family members have been accused of different crimes but they say they didn’t do it.
In 2020, Angolan prosecutors accused Ms Dos Santos of stealing and illegally using money.
The international police agency Interpol put out a “red notice” for the billionaire in 2022, telling police around the world to find and temporarily arrest her.
Ms Dos Santos has not been taken by the police since they started looking into her, but her money and things she owns have been frozen in many places.
“Isabel’s lawyer, Mr. Morrison, said she is currently dealing with legal cases in different places to prove her innocence. ”
“The Angolan authorities are trying to scare her so she can’t come back to Angola and run for political office. ”
Ms Dos Santos was recently charged with a crime on 11 December, according to the Portuguese news agency Lusa. The Angolan attorney general’s office said they couldn’t talk about it because it’s a secret legal matter.
Ms Dos Santos has talked about running for president of Angola in different media interviews in the last few years.
She has been called the richest woman in Africa before, and it is said she has about $2 billion. Her name is not on the list of the richest people in the world by Forbes anymore because her money and property are being argued about in different places.
Tag: Isabel dos Santos
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Angolan billionaire dismisses new accusations of crime
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The Supreme Court of Angola has ordered Isabel dos Santos’s $1 billion worth of assets to be seized
Isabel dos Santos’ assets worth $1 billion have been ordered to be seized by the Angola Supreme Court (ASC).
In support of their request, the Public Ministry provided proof of money laundering, influence-peddling, embezzlement, and economic engagement in business.Dos Santos is the main beneficiary of the ruling, which also calls for the seizure of 70% of her shares in Upstar Comunicaço and the freezing of 70% of the shares in the Mozambican telecom business Mstar.
Dos Santos, who was once considered Africa’s wealthiest woman by Forbes with a net worth of more than $2 billion, was removed from the list in January 2021 after her bank accounts and assets were seized in Angola, Portugal, and the Netherlands.
The recent move by the ASC follows the issuance of a red notice by the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) to dos Santos, the daughter of Angola’s late former President Jose Eduardo dos Santos.
The Angolan government, led by President Joao Lourenco, previously seized shares in Unitel S.A., the country’s leading mobile telecommunications company, from the billionaire businesswoman and one of her deceased father’s associates, Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento.
The seizure of dos Santos’ assets is part of a larger crackdown on corruption in Angola, which has long been plagued by allegations of mismanagement and embezzlement of public funds.
The government’s efforts to combat corruption have been met with praise from international organizations and countries, but have also faced criticism from some who argue that the campaign has targeted political opponents and overlooked corruption within the ruling party.
Despite the legal challenges facing dos Santos, it remains to be seen how much of her $1 billion worth of assets will actually be seized by the ASC. The legal process can be lengthy, and it is possible that some of her assets may be protected by international laws or treaties.
However, the seizure of such a significant amount of assets is a clear sign of the Angolan government’s determination to hold those accused of corruption accountable and send a message that such actions will not be tolerated.
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Isabel dos Santos says Angola faked evidence to freeze assets
Isabel dos Santos, the billionaire daughter of Angola’s ex-president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, on Tuesday accused the government of resorting to forgery to freeze her assets last year.
The 47-year-old tycoon and her Congolese husband Sindika Dokolo are accused of syphoning off more than one billion dollars from Angolan state companies.
A court in the southern African nation in December froze their bank accounts as part of a massive corruption probe.
Dos Santos claimed in a statement that a copy of a fake passport – bearing the signature of late martial arts film star Bruce Lee – was part of the evidence submitted to a court that froze her assets.
She cited among other alleged irregularities on the passport that her birth date was wrong and her name was incomplete.
“But the most ridiculous aspect is the signature of the issuing authority: this is a reproduction of the signature of Bruce Lee, the legendary kung fu actor who died in the 1970s,” said a statement released through her public relations agent.
Dos Santos said her lawyers unearthed the falsified evidence which included scam emails, after they were given access to the court documents last month.
“Looking at the forged evidence it is now clear that the Angolan state through the intelligence services, prosecution, civil court, and Supreme Court has colluded and contrived a case to obtain an unfair and illegal decision against me,” she said.
“False documents and false statements have been deliberately brought before the court.”
Dos Santos was charged in January in Angola with a long list of crimes, including mismanagement, embezzlement of funds, and money laundering during her stewardship of the oil giant Sonangol.
She was forced out of the job at Sonangol just months after her father stepped down in 2017 and was replaced by his hand-picked successor, Joao Lourenco.
Dos Santos built up a vast business empire over the past two decades, with stakes in several Angolan and Portuguese companies.
Her fortune is valued at $2.1 billion (1.9 billion euros) by Forbes Magazine, which named her Africa’s richest woman in 2013.
A consortium of investigative journalists, after analysing a trove of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents, has also accused dos Santos of looting state coffers during her father’s nearly four-decade rule.
Dos Santos has denied any wrongdoing and says she is a victim of a witch hunt.
Source: france24.com