Isabel dos Santos is Africa’s richest woman; her wealth is estimated to be $2bn. She lived an extravagant life as a “self-made woman” that meant she rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous of the world. But the Dos Santos empire fell and as her family no longer held the strings of power, the new President JoĂŁo Lourenço accused them of corruption, nepotism, flattery and impunity and declared the Dos Santos family to be “enemy number one”. Isabel dos Santos who was at the helm of the state oil company Sonangol, became the subject of a criminal investigation. And as things were starting to become uncomfortable for her, she left for Dubai. There appears to be a template for people like Dos Santos and the Guptas who manage to extract the wealth of an African country. Rule 1 – you have to know Comrade One or the Big Induna very well or he/she has to be in your pocket. Isabel dos Santos was a family member. Rule 2 – Western companies and the same names often prop up; McKinsey, the audit giants and in the case of Dos Santos; Boston Consulting Group that facilitated their efforts. Rule 3 – you have to know somebody to move your loot through shell companies and get help at an airport to make sure you escape. Rule 4 – Somebody decides to leak documents; in the case of Dos Santos it was the Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa that gave documents called the Luanda Leaks to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The ICIJ was also responsible for the Panama Papers. Rule 5 – When the corruption finally comes to light – you dismiss the allegations as “politically motivated” or use illness as an excuse so you don’t have to answer to allegations. Rule 6– Make sure there is a place to escape to where nobody can get to you; it is Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. – Linda van Tilburg
By Thulasizwe Sithole
The Luanda Leaks has exposed “two decades of unscrupulous deals that led to Dos Santos becoming the wealthiest woman in Africa.” Her accumulation of wealth, the ICIJ reports, contributed to Angola, which is an oil and diamond rich country, to become one of the poorest in the world. The leaks contain 715,000 confidential records and hundreds of interviews, which track how the Dos Santos family members and associates managed to move public funds to off-shore destinations. The documents in English and Portuguese date back to the 1980s.
The ICIJ found evidence of the massive business empire that Dos Santos and her husband built, which included more than 400 companies. At least 94 of these companies were in Malta, Mauritius and Hong Kong. In return the companies were given “consulting jobs, loans, public works contracts and licences worth billions of dollars from the Angolan government.” The family invested in real estate, energy and media businesses and through her top job at Sonangol which she was given by her father, former President José Eduardo dos Santos, Isabel dos Santos managed to direct hundreds of millions of loans and contracts to her companies.
It is also highlighted in the report that “a cadre of Western business advisers moved money, set up companies, audited accounts and suggested ways to avoid taxes” and turned a blind eye to red flags. It includes Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey and PwC. Some were reported to be paid not by the government of Angola but through a Maltese company that Dos Santos owned. The ICIJ said that these companies managed to get consulting jobs, loans, public works contracts and licenses worth billions of dollars from the Angolan government.
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“Documents also show businesses linked to the couple steering consulting fees, loans and contracts to shell companies they control in the British Virgin Islands, the Netherlands and Malta. There were however other global banks including Citigroup and Deutsche Bank, who declined to work with the family in recent years, the documents show as they were bound by “strict rules about politically connected clients”.
PwC handled some of the accounts for companies in Malta, Switzerland and the Netherlands and told the Guardian newspaper in London that they were conducting an internal investigation “in response to the very serious and concerning allegations” and also announced that they have stopped any ongoing work with entities controlled by members of the Dos Santos Family.
Angola launched a criminal investigation in September 2019 into the actions of Dos Santos while she was at the helm of Sonangol. It is estimated that she and her husband have managed to steal $1bn from Angola. Transparency International has put Angola at the bottom of the list of the world’s most corrupt countries. Dos Santos and her husband turned a blind eye on what effect they had on the poor of Angola. “In one case identified by ICIJ, thousands of families where forcibly evicted from their Luanda homes on land that was part of a redevelopment project involving a Dos Santos company.
Speaking to several business news outlets in Europe, Dos Santos has called the inquiry into her business dealings as a “political persecution.” She told the BBC that her holdings were commercial and that no proceeds from contract or public contracts or money had been deviated from public funds. Her husband Sindika Dokolo told a French radio station that they were “wrongfully targeted”; that they were Angola’s biggest tax contributors and have invested a lot in the country.
Isabel Dos Santos was due to be at the Davos meeting of the World Economic Forum this week and was one of the sponsors through her company Unitel, the biggest mobile phone provider in Angola. The organisers have said they are “re-evaluating her sponsorship” and her name has been removed from the list of participants.
