Riyaz Patel
Portuguese authorities have started investigating media reports concerning Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos.
Lisbon’s action follows increased scrutiny of Angola’s former first daughter after amassing a fortune estimated at more than $2 billion during her father Jose Eduardo’s decades-long presidency.
A spokesman for Portugal’s prosecutor’s office said it would investigate reports about dos Santos, while the central bank said in a statement it had asked Eurobic bank about transfers between Angola and Dubai, following the same reports.
Both institutions said they would take appropriate action if needed, without giving any details.
“This is not simply a story about Angola. It’s a global story,” Oxford University professor Ricardo Soares De Oliveira told the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
The central bank statement, the prosecutor’s office and Eurobic all referred to hundreds of thousands of files about dos Santos dubbed the “Luanda Leaks” – obtained by the ICIJ and released by several news organisations Sunday.
The media reports focused on alleged financial schemes used by dos Santos to build her business empire, including transfers between Angola and Dubai.
The ‘Luanda Leaks’ exposes decades of insider deals that made Isabel dos Santos Africa’s richest woman.
The trove of more than 715,000 records also reveals a vast network of shell companies used by dos Santos and her husband, Sindika Dokolo, to hold money, buy real estate and purchase stakes in banks, telecom, energy companies and more.
Dos Santos, who holds a 42.5% stake in Eurobic indirectly via two entities said Sunday that allegations made against her were “completely unfounded.”
Angolan authorities froze dos Santos’ assets in the African country in late December following allegations by prosecutors that she and her husband had steered payments of more than $1 billion from state companies Sonangol and Sodiam to firms in which they held stakes.
In Portugal, dos Santos holds significant stakes in several important firms, including telecoms company NOS.
Portugal’s Sonae, which partners with dos Santos in NOS, said in statement late on Monday that it was following the situation with “attention and concern, especially given allusions made to several non-executive members of the board of directors of its subsidiary NOS.”
