The United Kingdom’s government has sanctioned Angolan businesswoman Isabel dos Santos and two of her associates, whose controversial financial dealings were exposed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, accusing the former billionaire of stealing her country’s wealth for her own benefit.
In a statement released last week, the U.K.’s foreign secretary said that dos Santos, the eldest daughter of Angola’s former president, “systematically abused her positions at state-run companies to embezzle at least £350 million [$443 million], depriving Angola of resources and funding for much-needed development.”
The sanctions, which include asset freezes and travel bans, are part of what the British foreign office calls its campaign against “kleptocrats” and their associates for “stealing their countries’ wealth for personal gain.” The sanctions also target two of dos Santos’ “enablers,” her business partners Paula Oliveira and Sarju Raikundalia.
In a note published on her Instagram account, the businesswoman, once touted as Africa’s first female billionaire, called the U.K. government’s decision “incorrect and unjustified” and said she will appeal.
“No court has found me guilty of corruption or bribery,” she wrote in Portuguese. “This is yet another step in Angola’s politically motivated campaign of persecution against me and my family.”
Raikundalia and Oliveira have previously denied wrongdoing.
In 2020, ICIJ’s Luanda Leaks investigation revealed how dos Santos and her late husband set up entities in secrecy jurisdictions to benefit from lucrative deals involving Angola’s state-owned oil company, along with state contracts for companies linked to her in diamonds, telecommunications, banking and real estate under the rule of her father, José Eduardo dos Santos. ICIJ showed the couple at the time had owned or partly controlled more than 400 entities around the world.
Accountants and consultants, including Raikundalia and Oliveira, were key to dos Santos’ financial dealings after her father’s administration appointed her head of state-owned oil company Sonangol in 2016, ICIJ found.
During her time at Sonangol, dos Santos brought in Raikundalia, then a senior executive at PwC Angola, to be the company’s chief financial officer. Oliveira, a friend and long-time associate, helped her set up Dubai-registered shell companies used to divert millions, documents reviewed by ICIJ and its media partners showed.
Early this year, Angolan prosecutors charged dos Santos with embezzlement, money laundering and other crimes, and leveled criminal charges against some of her associates, including Raikundalia and Oliveira, accusing them of defrauding the state during dos Santos’s time as the chair of Sonangol’s board.
The prosecutors allege that dos Santos and her allies caused the state to lose about $219 million from unduly paid salaries, loss-making sales, tax fraud and fraudulent payments to several of dos Santos’ shell companies. As the head of Sonangol, she assigned herself a monthly salary of $50,448 — nearly $19,000 more than her predecessors, according to the indictment.
Dos Santos is already subject to asset freezes in several countries, including Portugal and the U.S. Last year, she lost a legal battle in London’s High Court to prevent a freeze on up to $733 million of her assets. In 2022, Angolan authorities requested her provisional arrest through the Interpol Red Notice system.
The U.K. sanctions against dos Santos were part of a package that targeted other “kleptocrats,” including Ukrainian businessman Dmitry Firtash, indicted by U.S. prosecutors for bribery in 2014. In its 2020 FinCEN Files investigation, ICIJ reported that five global banks approved transactions for Firtash even after U.S. authorities had forced the banks to pay fines and pledge to work harder to vet suspect clients.
“These unscrupulous individuals selfishly deprive their fellow citizens of much-needed funding for education, healthcare and infrastructure — for their own enrichment,” U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said.
Angola is one of the world’s poorest countries. More than half of the population lives on less than $3.65 per day, according to the World Food Programme.
Dos Santos currently resides in Dubai, where a recent investigation by ICIJ and OCCRP linked the businesswoman and her mother to multiple luxury properties.
