Africa-Press – Angola. President João Lourenço’s Executive’s commitment to fighting corruption is highlighted in an article in the Netherlands publication, NRC, where a new case is revealed on which Isabel dos Santos will respond in court, in March 2023, for embezzlement of 50 million of euros.
Businesswoman was persona non grata in international banks since at least 2013.
The article reports an investigation carried out by a Dutch lawyer, at the request of Sonangol, to Esperaza, the Dutch company through which the Angolan company entered Galp Energia and that Sindika Dokolo, the late husband of Isabel dos Santos, would become a shareholder – in a deal recently canceled by a Dutch arbitration court.
The lawyer, officially appointed to carry out the investigation, denounces that, with the cooperation of several ‘facilitators’, about 52 million euros have been diverted from Esperaza, in a scheme that involved the also Dutch Exem, through which Sindika owned 40% of the company which owns more than 30% of the Portuguese company.
Isabel dos Santos, the “largest law firm in Portugal and a partner, a well-known lawyer”, says the article, as well as the businesswoman’s former right-hand man, Mário Leite Silva, were notified this summer to appear in March 2023. In a Dutch court on account of this civil case, elements of the banks owned by Isabel dos Santos in Portugal and Cape Verde will also be heard, as well as a Dutch office (TCA) responsible for the management of the businesswoman and her husband’s companies.
The article recalls the actions carried out by the Government of João Lourenço against the daughter of the late president of Angola, José Eduardo dos Santos, in the context of the priority given since 2017 to the fight against corruption and impunity, and the schemes brought to the public by Luanda Leaks of embezzlement of millions of dollars from Sonangol to companies controlled by the former richest in Africa.
Escape by night
“Since then, the Angolan authorities have been trying all over the world to recover assets belonging to the ex-PR’s daughter and millions of dollars have been seized”, points out the article, published last Friday, November 4th.
“Dos Santos fled Angola the night she discovered that a criminal investigation had been launched against her. From her current residence in Dubai, which has no extradition treaty with Angola, Dos Santos is fighting these cases with the help of of an army of lawyers”, the publication continues.
Old problems
The article reveals that Isabel dos Santos has faced problems with international banks in the Netherlands since at least 2013, due to risks of corruption and money laundering.
“At TCA (the Dutch office, which the report points out as little known and transparent) they know that providing services to the companies of Dos Santos and her husband Dokolo is risky”, indicates the NRC.
“Isabel dos Santos’ companies have already been ‘barred’ in the Netherlands on several occasions, due to the high risks of corruption and money laundering, as documents show (to which the publication had access). Banks such as Deutsche Bank and ING have already she was invited to park funds in other institutions, between 2014 and 2015. She was also twice removed from fiduciary offices, companies hired to manage companies, as of 2013”.
Fight “returns” five million USD/day to Angolans
Isabel dos Santos, her ex-husband and former employees of her companies are just some of the most visible faces of the result of the fight against corruption carried out by João Loureço since he took office in 2017.
But the research work on businesses that harmed the State, carried out by public agents, businessmen, politicians, among others, is permanent, extensive and has brought palpable results – along with the contribution to changing mentalities, a slow process, but which is also already being internalized by most Angolans.
In the last three years of President João Lourenço’s first term, as a result of this work to fight corruption and impunity, the State and the courts recovered financial assets, including cash, and non-financial assets in the order of 5.3 billion dollars – anything close to 5 million dollars a day, in a process that, in the meantime, continues and has recently given new results (at Unitel, for example) in favor of the State and Angolans.
The fight against corruption is carried out at several levels, including the legislature. For example, the João Lourenço Government passed legislation on capital repatriation (Law on Repatriation of Financial Resources and Law on Coercive Repatriation and Extended Loss of Assets), and the National Assembly approved in 2020 a new Penal Code (with a chapter on Crimes Committed in the Exercise of Public Functions and to the Damage of Public Functions) and a new Criminal Procedure Code.
The new legislation on public procurement, from 2018, reinforces transparency and the fight against corruption, having published documents such as the Booklet of Ethics and Conduct in Public Procurement, the Practical Guide for the Prevention and Management of Corruption Risks and Related Infractions in Public Contracts and the Guide to Complaints of Evidence of Corruption and Related Infractions in Public Contracts.
In 2020, Angola ratified the United Nations Conventions against Illicit Traffic in Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances, against Transnational Organized Crime and on the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism. In 2018, it had approved the Organic Statute of the Financial Intelligence Unit and the Oversight Committee – reinforcing the prevention and repression of money laundering, terrorist financing and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
In the PGR – which within the scope of international cooperation has already requested the seizure and seizure of assets worth around USD 5 billion – the National Service for the Recovery of Assets was created, which is responsible for “proceeding with the location, identification and seizure of assets, financial and non-financial assets or crime-related products, whether these assets are in Angola or abroad”, and requests for cooperation have already been made by the Angolan authorities to countries such as Switzerland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Bermuda, United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, Kingdom of Monaco, Malta, Isles of Man and others.
Almost 2,000 criminal cases have already been opened regarding crime linked to corruption and the like, involving dozens of figures linked to the JES Government, with freezing or seizure of assets, among others, in cases such as those of Manuel Vicente and generals Dino and Kopelipa.
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