In the last two decades, the African continent has seen an increase in high net worth individuals (HNIs) while the African masses buried...
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| In the last two decades, the African continent has seen an increase in high net worth individuals (HNIs) while the African masses buried deep in poverty. |
An Angolan court has ordered the seizure of the assets and bank accounts of the billionaire daughter of ex-President José Eduardo dos Santos. The seizure appears to be part of an anti-corruption drive by the current government in oil-rich Angola. The administration of President Joao Lourenço is seeking to recover $1bn (£760m) it says it is owed by Isabel dos Santos and her associates. She has repeatedly denied wrongdoing during her father's term in office. Often described as Africa's richest woman, Ms Dos Santos is estimated by Forbes magazine to have a fortune of $2.2bn.
Corruptions
The 46-year-old lives abroad, saying she moved from Angola because her life had been threatened. She runs a huge business empire with stakes in companies in Angola and Portugal, where she has shares in cable television firm Nos SGPS. The court ordered the freezing of Ms Dos Santos' Angolan bank accounts and the seizure of her stake in local companies, including telecoms giant Unitel and bank Fomento de Angola (BFA), the state-owned news agency reported. In a statement, she said she condemned what she described as a "politically motivated attack" against her.
"I discovered that a trial had been held in total secrecy in Angola and the decision taken to issue a freezing order on my assets. There were no lawyers from my side present, nor the directors of my companies. We were only informed about it after the decision had been taken behind our backs. "I have spent the last 24 hours trying to give assurances to my staff and all the families affected by this order that we must not give in. I will use all the instruments of Angolan and international law at my disposal to fight this order and ensure the truth comes out."
Ms Dos Santos gained a high public profile in 2016, when her father controversially appointed her as the head of Angola's state-owned oil firm Sonangol. She was sacked from the post in 2017 by Mr Lourenço, her father's handpicked successor. Her brother, José Filomeno dos Santos, is on trial in Angola on charges of corruption. The prosecution alleges that he and his co-accused helped spirit $500m out of the country during his time as head of Angola's Sovereign Wealth Fund. They have pleaded not guilty.
Serious about reforms?
By Andrew Harding, BBC Africa correspondent, the court order was read out on state television - a powerful gesture in a country where, for decades, the Dos Santos family had seemed untouchable. Now, the fate of the vast business empire of Isabel dos Santos, the eldest daughter of the former president, is in doubt. Two years ago, Mr Dos Santos stepped down after 38 years in power. And to the surprise of many, his successor turned against the family, promising a major crackdown on corruption. Since then, billions of dollars in stolen assets have been recovered from abroad. Angolans are waiting to see if one alleged kleptocracy will simply be replaced by another or whether, as many hope, this vast oil-rich but impoverished nation is now serious about reforms and justice.
When Isabel dos Santos sits down to count her billions, as Africa’s richest woman, much of that fortune is in stocks and shares which she counts as her own. Forbes estimates her wealth at $3.3-billion. The reality, however, is that a large proportion of it, estimated at €1.6-billion ($1.8-billion) according to the Diário Economico’s calculations, corresponds to stocks in the Portuguese oil and gas company, Galp Energia, which should legally belong to the Angolan National Oil Company, Sonangol.
The Facts
Isabel’s Galp interests are held indirectly, through the offshore Esperaza Holding BV which owns 45% of Amorim Energia, the largest shareholder in Galp with 38.4% of its stock. Amorim Energia’s majority owner (with 55%) is Portugal’s richest man, Américo Amorim, who was Isabel’s partner in creating the BIC bank in 2005. The two are also partners in the company Nova Cimangola, acquired from Cimpor by the Angolan State for $75-million.
It is through Esperaza Holding that Sonangol’s funds were channeled to Isabel dos Santos. In 2005, when Esperaza Holding bought into Galp, it was registered by the Dutch Chamber of Commerce (Handelsregisterhistorie) as being a company wholly-owned by Sonangol and this was again the case the following year.
According to a document obtained by Maka Angola, Isabel dos Santos formally reported in 2013 to the Portuguese Competition Authority (Autoridade da Concorrência) that she is the beneficial owner of the Exem’s shares in Esperaza. In short, Angola’s state oil giant was using a front company in which Isabel dos Santos is the ultimate beneficial owner to channel public money into overseas investments. Without Exam having to put up a single cent, by a stroke of the pen the company found itself the owner of 40% of Sonangol’s investment in Galp.
Information in the public domain was that Esperaza Holding (the vehicle for controlling Galp shares) was 45% owned by the president’s daughter and 55% owned by Sonangol. However, the formal agreement shows that she received 40% of the stakes, and not 45% as she misleads the public to believe. The deal was signed by Manuel Vicente, then Chairman of the Board and CEO of Sonangol (now Angola’s Vice-President) and on Isabel’s behalf by her legal counsel, Fidel Kiluanje Assis Araújo. The memorandum of understanding between the two parties divided Sonangol’s Galp share acquisition in two phases: in Phase One, Exem would pay Sonangol €11.2-million ($12.5-million), equivalent to 15% of the value set at the time for the execution of the transfer of the shares.
In Phase Two, Exem would pay Sonangol a further €63.8-million ($71.5-million) to cover the remaining 85% of the cost of their 40% split of the parcel of Galp shares. It was a sweet deal because Isabel didn’t have to pluck a single penny out of her own purse. The money would come out of the Galp dividends paid to Esperaza Holding along with nonconvertible units at the Euribor three-month interest rate. That same year, 2006, Isabel dos Santos’s husband Sindika Dokolo became a director on the Galp Board on behalf of Esperaza Holding. Isabel dos Santos formally admitted to the Portuguese Competition Authority that she is the minority shareholder in Esperaza Holding through Exam Africa.
The Explanation
This is how the scheme worked. Sonangol paid for 45% of the shares in Amorim Energia which in turn held 38.4% of the shares in Galp. Sonangol then “donated” a proportion of that to front companies that lead to Isabel dos Santos, requiring her only to pay up once she had pocketed sufficient dividends from the investment. So far as Maka Angola has been able to establish, there is no evidence whatsoever that Isabel (or her front companies) ever paid Sonangol the agreed sums. No official record seems to exist to show even that first payment (€11.2-million) changing hands. In fact, even if she were to pay up in full, the total bill for the share transfer (€75-million to obtain 40% of Esperaza) was actually less than the true cost of Sonangol’s investment.
How else then can this transaction be described except as an illicit transfer of State assets to the president’s daughter? Isabel dos Santos didn’t have to spend a single penny of her own money on this fine piece of business. All the money owed to Sonangol for the share split would come from the profits: Galp pays dividends to Esperaza and Esperaza is then supposed to divide it up and remit to Sonangol its share (60%). But Sonangol’s balance sheets and accounts show no payments from Isabel dos Santos’s holdings towards these debts. To date, all that has happened is that Sonangol made the purchase and Isabel received the pay-out. And yet she portrays herself “in ringing declarations” as “tremendously independent”.
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| Isabel dos Santos husband, children, parents and family's net worth. |
So it should come as no surprise to anyone that the person entrusted by the president with the restructuring of Sonangol (through her position as chair of the Commission for the Reorganisation of the Oil Sector) is none other than Isabel dos Santos. This brainchild – the creation of the Boston Consulting Group and the Portuguese firm of lawyers Vieira de Almeira e Associados – is nothing more than the latest scheme by which the president’s family milks Sonangol for its own ends.
The conclusion
An estimated two-thirds of Isabel’s fortune is based on her Galp shareholding, which, with no evidence to show that she has ever repaid Sonangol for its initial investment, should properly belong to the Angolan state oil company. Maka Angola’s legal analyst, Rui Verde, says this: “Isabel dos Santos’s shares in Galp should have an ownership reserve clause or a lien on these assets in favour of Sonangol until such time as the money owed is paid up in full. Even then it is not a legal act for a state firm to function as a private investment bank for the presidential family.” Verde continues: “From a strictly legal point of view, the handover of shares to front companies acting for Isabel, should be ruled null and void with the shares immediately reverting to Sonangol ownership.”
In this lawyer’s professional opinion, there is a strong case for a criminal investigation by both Portugal and Angola into this matter, because of the “indications of corruption, embezzlement, evasion and money-laundering”. “Evidence that the shareholding obtained by Isabel dos Santos came about through the unsanctioned use of state funds by underhand means is sufficient grounds to suggest a contravention of the international laws against money-laundering, and that is a public crime requiring obligatory investigation by the Office of the Attorney General,” said Verde.