In recent years, numerous corruption investigations have been launched against members of the dos Santos family, which ruled Angola for decades.
An Angolan named Africa’s richest woman Isabel dos Santos has lost the legal battle for the release of the funds frozen from him. The matter is reported, for example, by Britain the BBC.
The Angolan telecom operator Unitel demands damages from dos Santos for more than 670 million euros. According to the company, dos Santos transferred hundreds of millions of euros to the name of the holding company he owns in 2012-2013 when he served as CEO of Unitel.
According to Dos Santos, it was a loan. However, it was found out in court that dos Santos has not paid interest on the loans during this decade.
According to Unitel, dos Santos had also set very favorable terms for the loan in order to maximize the financial benefit from the money.
Dos Santos himself has denied that he acted wrongly and called the charges a political chase.
Isabel dos Santos is the former president of Angola by José Eduardo dos Santos daughter. The Dos Santos family has a dubious reputation in Angola, as both José and Isabel are believed to have used their positions of power for their own to increase their wealth.
For years, Isabel has worked in the management of numerous significant Angolan companies. His father José was the president of Angola for 38 years until 2017.
Named to succeed José Eduardo dos Santos João Lourençon during his reign, numerous corruption investigations have been started in Angola against members of the dos Santos family. For example, José’s son Zenu has previously been sentenced to five years in prison for fraud.
Angola has many precious natural resources such as oil and diamonds. Luanda, the capital of the country, has grown into a prosperous and modern metropolis, but despite everything, the income level of the people is still low.
Isabel dos Santos’ assets are estimated to be around two billion dollars (1.8 billion euros).