Angola: Supreme Court orders seizure of assets of daughter of former President

Angola’s Supreme Court ordered Tuesday the preventive seizure of assets of Isabel dos Santos, daughter of former president Eduardo dos Santos, Africa News reports.

The court order targets 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 powerful businesswoman.

The assets also include shares in mobile networks in Mozambique, Cape Verde and São Tomé e Príncipe.

In addition to 70% of the shares of the Mozambican telecommunications company MSTAR, of which Isabel dos Santos is the effective beneficiary, she holds 100% of the companies UNITEL T+ in Cape Verde and UNITEL STP in São Tomé e Principe.

The court also argues that Isabel 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 decision is based on documents from state oil company Sonangol and mobile phone company Unitel, as well as information provided by Portuguese and Dutch authorities.
The Tuesday decision is the second since 2019. Isabel was the most powerful business person in the African country until her father ruled the country 38 year until 2017.
The former leader died in July this year in Barcelona, Spain.