December 28,(THEWILL) – The Supreme Court of Angola has ordered the “preventive” seizure of assets worth around $1 billion held by Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of the country’s former President, Jose Eduardo dos Santos.
This is the second seizure of Isabel dos Santos’ assets in Angola, since 2019.
According to the Supreme Court, the businesswoman damaged the Angolan state in over 1 billion euros, “in other criminal cases” with evidence of “embezzlement, influence peddling, economic participation in companies and money laundering.”
The court order covers 100 percent of the shares of the company Embalvidro, of which the defendant is the beneficial owner as well as the balances of all bank accounts owned or co-owned by the daughter of the former Angolan president.
Also included are Isabel’s shares in mobile networks in Mozambique, Cape Verde and São Tomé e Príncipe.
This includes 70% of the shares of the Mozambican telecommunications company, MSTAR, of which Isabel dos Santos is the effective beneficiary, as well as 100% of the companies UNITEL T+ in Cape Verde and UNITEL STP in São Tomé e Principe, which were also seized.
The decision by the Angolan Supreme Court was based on documents from state oil company Sonangol and mobile phone company Unitel, as well as information provided by Portuguese and Dutch authorities.
Dos Santos’s father, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, died in July. He ruled Angola for almost four decades until 2017.
She has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and had said the courts in Angola were “not independent” and that judges there were “used to fulfil a political agenda.”
The order comes after the global police agency, Interpol, issued a red notice for dos Santos last month, asking global law enforcement authorities to locate and provisionally arrest her.
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