Isabel dos Santos

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Isabel dos Santos (2019)

Isabel dos Santos (born April 20, 1973 in Baku , Azerbaijan SSR , USSR ) is the eldest daughter of the President of Angola , José Eduardo dos Santos , who was in office from 1979 to 2017 . She is considered the largest private investor in Angola and is Africa's first dollar billionaire according to Forbes Magazine . Her personal fortune was estimated at over $ 3 billion in March 2013. She is accused of having built her fortune on corruption .

In January 2020, parts of their Angolan assets were frozen after the government of President João Lourenço applied for an injunction following the corruption allegations and a court granted early seizure.

Life

Isabel dos Santos was born in 1973 in Baku, where her mother, Tatiana Kukanova, met her father, José Eduardo dos Santos, when they were both studying engineering at the Azerbaijani Oil Academy . At that time Azerbaijan was part of the Soviet Union , where young cadres from ideologically related African liberation movements such as Angola's MPLA were trained.

Isabel dos Santos moved to London with her mother in the mid-1980s , where she attended St. Paul's Girls School . She then studied at King's College London , where she obtained a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering . There she met her husband Sindika Dokolo from the Democratic Republic of the Congo , the son of a millionaire from Kinshasa and his Danish wife. The wedding took place in Luanda in 2003 ; the four million US dollar celebration with around a thousand guests was one of the largest weddings in the country's history. The best man was the then Minister for Petroleum, Desidério da Costa . Isabel dos Santos has three children with her husband.

Career

She moved to Luanda in the mid-1990s and began her business career as a partner in the Miami Beach Club on Ilha de Luanda , then one of the first nightclubs in Angola's capital. She worked as an engineer for the Urbana 2000 company , which was responsible for collecting garbage in the capital. Due to the communication problems between the vehicles, she decided to equip the drivers with walkie-talkies in order to better coordinate the logistical process. She started a walkie-talkie sales company that she turned into a huge communications company after the state-owned Angola Telecom's monopoly ended in 1998. High-ranking politicians from the ruling MPLA party were involved in her company, Unitel . In May 2000 the Council of Ministers gave Unitel permission to introduce the GSM standard mobile phone service throughout the country .

When the South African company De Beers stopped buying diamonds in Angola in 1999 due to international sanctions against UNITA , the Angolan diamond sales company Ascorp , in which Trans-African Investment Services (TAIS) holds a 24.5% stake, Isabel dos Santos and belong to her mother Tatiana Kukanova. In 2000 TAIS was renamed Iaxonh Limited , based in Gibraltar . In the following years Isabel dos Santos invested in banks, a supermarket chain, multimedia company, a brewery belonging to the Heineken group and a Swiss diamond factory.

Isabel dos Santos manages the family fortune that her father amassed during his authoritarian rule in Angola. Angola is the second largest oil producer in Africa. Her father ruled with the help of relatives, generals and the former head of the state oil company Sonangol ( Sociedade Nacional de Combustíveis de Angola ). This group of people was called the "Futungo clique" after the presidential palace. This government and its patronage network - known as kleptocratic - privatized large parts of the oil revenues. The boundaries between politics and private business are fluid. In December 2011, the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch asked the government of Angola to provide information about the remaining 25 billion euros that are missing from the treasury in connection with the Sonangol. It must be assumed that the missing oil billions have flowed into investments, especially in Portugal , and primarily into that of the family of President José Eduardo dos Santos, especially that of his daughter Isabel.

The Brazilian Federal Police have been investigating the embezzlement of at least 19.5 million euros since 2009, which Sonangol diverted through an entangled network of companies in tax havens to Brazil for the construction of two luxury resorts in Paraíba , in which Isabel dos Santos is involved.

Isabel dos Santos was described by the Portuguese newspaper Público as a “good businesswoman” and a “tough negotiator” who was “extremely dynamic and intelligent”, as well as “professional”, “correct”, “personable” and “good-looking”. The Financial Times wrote in March 2013 that "some critics also recognize Isabel dos Santos' ability as an entrepreneur". In the same interview, Isabel dos Santos says she is a businesswoman, not a politician.

She became a key figure in the management of family wealth and, through various holdings, acquired ownership and stakes in (or takeover of) companies in Angola and abroad, particularly Portugal .

Investments in Portugal and Angola

She has had stakes in telecommunications, media, finance, energy, industry since at least 2008, both in Angola and Portugal (wine and olive division). In addition to her business interests in oil and diamonds, Isabel dos Santos also owns shares in the Angolan cement company Nova Cimangola . Her husband Dokolo, who also works in the diamond business, sits on the company's board of directors.

Isabel dos Santos is a 29% shareholder of ZON Multimédia in Portugal through Unitel International Holdings BV . In November 2012 she became a member of the ZON Board of Directors with no executive functions. In December 2012 she announced the merger with Sonaecom to form ZON Optimus , now NOS . She was one of the founders of the Angolan Banco BIC Português , which the state-owned Banco Português de Negócios (BPN) bought from the Portuguese state, and was a board member with the approval of the Banco de Portugal . It also held interests in Galp Energia and in Banco de Fomento de Angola (BFA).

In 2010, Isabel dos Santos and her Santoro Holding bought 9.99 percent of the shares in the Portuguese Banco Português de Investimento (BPI) and increased it in March 2012 to a total of 19.43 percent.

In the joint venture company with dos Santo, the Portuguese ZON Multimédia launched the TV channel ZAP , a satellite-based pay TV program. 30 percent of the business will remain with ZON, while the remaining 70 percent will be held through SOCIP - Sociedade de Investimentos e Participações, SA, an Angolan investment and holding company. A contract between SOCIP and the Portuguese group Sonae secures a substantial share in two large-scale initiatives of this group in Angola, the supermarket chain Continente and a real estate company.

The starting point was the creation of Unitel in partnership with Portugal Telecom . In addition to Isabel dos Santos, Brigadier Leopoldino Fragoso Nascimento , Anthony Van-Dunem and Manuel Augusto da Fonseca from the Sonangol law firm were involved in the founding , as well as the Franco-Brazilian businessman Pierre Falcone , known from the Angolagate affair .

The development of a walkie-talkie system paved the way for their later foray into telecommunications. After a fair bidding process, it created the largest mobile operator in Angola in partnership with Portugal Telecom, Sonangol and Vidatel.

Unitel Internacional, a Unitels investment platform in which Portugal Telecom has no presence, acquired the operator T + and with it the license to set up the second mobile network operator in Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe .

In mid-2012, Isabel dos Santos' fortune in Portugal was more than 1.4 billion euros.

With her own Angolan company Condis , Isabel dos Santos signed a partnership with the Portuguese Sonae group in April 2011 for the joint development and operation of a chain of supermarkets in Angola called Continente . She terminated this partnership in September 2015 and opened the hypermarket chain Candando in May 2016 with her group of companies renamed Contidis . It also took over the 49% stake that the Sonae Group owned in Condis. Contidis operates 16 stores in Angola, including five hypermarkets under the Candando brand, three under the Wammo brand, three cafeterias under the Crëmme brand, three pharmacies, an optician and a children's shop (as of May 2019). She also owns the beverage manufacturer Sodiba with her husband Sindika Dokolo .

Concerns in Portugal

Dos Santos' significant growth in business volume in the Portuguese communications sector has sparked fears in the Lusitan media. The monopoly position due to the most recent transactions in 2012 is expressed in editorial press articles . By focusing on Angola and Portugal, this would lead to a monopoly in some areas of the Portuguese communications and media industry. Isabel dos Santos said she had no interest in the Angolan or Portuguese media. Isabel dos Santos has also been accused of unilateral political distortion and abuse of inside information about her contacts in Portugal. Isabel dos Santos' involvement in the Portuguese economy appears to have a clear strategy . In the years 2009–2012, their share increased exponentially. The areas of interest are the communications and financial systems . Both segments also have priority for investments in their own companies in Angola and abroad. Isabel dos Santos, currently one of the largest entrepreneurs in her country, is expanding her business in Europe without diversifying the business areas that serve her . The concern of the Portuguese economic actors can therefore be justified by the recent investments of the Angolan businesswoman.

Corruption allegations as of 2017, Luanda Leaks

Isabel dos Santos (2019)

After dos Santos' father left the presidency in autumn 2017, after almost 40 years at the helm of the country, Isabel dos Santos was released as CEO of the state oil company Sonangol and two of her brothers were released from the administration of a state television station. Months later, Carlos Saturnino, dos Santos' successor at Sonangol, publicly accused her of mismanagement, saying her tenure was marked by conflicts of interest, tax avoidance and excessive reliance on "advisors". Saturnino said it had approved "advisory payments" of US $ 135 million, the majority of which was transferred to a bogus company in Dubai, with around US $ 38 million illegally in a bank account on the day of her release from Sonangol alone Transferred to Dubai - the transfer was triggered just hours after she was recalled.

After the presidency was handed over to João Lourenço in 2017 , allegations of corruption against dos Santos and other members of the hitherto inviolable family began to become public on the part of the new government. She did not comply with a summons from the General Prosecutor's Office in 2017 to question the origin of her assets and has since lived between London, Lisbon and Dubai. Since then she has been tweeting regularly and issuing warnings of "economic and profound political crises" in Angola.

At the end of December 2019, the court of the province of Luanda ordered the assets and accounts of Isabel dos Santos, her husband Sindika Dokolo and business partner Mário Filipe Moreira Leite da Silva (including EFACEC , Kento Holding, Santoro Finance) to be frozen and placed under fiduciary management . The judiciary demanded, with a special focus on the Geneva diamond jeweler De Grisogono and the state-owned Sonangol, that they have to repay $ 1.136 billion to the state for illegal enrichment.

The International Network of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published on 19 January 2020, taking the title Luanda leaks more than 700,000 e-mails, documents and contracts that the African group of journalists Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa (PPLAAF) were leaked, they of the journalists ICIJ shared. The eight-month analysis of the documents by the journalists involved provides new insights and shows how dos Santos rose to become the most important business woman in the oil and diamond state of Angola and multi-billionaire in two decades through the protection of the autocratic government of her father in a series of seedy sales and later transferred out of the country. To this end, more than 400 companies in 41 jurisdictions, including almost 100 in tax havens such as Luxembourg , Malta , Mauritius and Hong Kong , were founded by dos Santos and their willing helpers, who repeatedly benefited from public contracts and government loans. So she repeatedly invested in real estate and systematically disguised her approach. Dos Santos counted on the cooperation of numerous helpers in the West who built their empire financed by state funds. In addition to lawyers, bankers and trustees, the major auditors and consultants Deloitte , Ernst & Young , KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) , but also Boston Consulting and McKinsey dos Santos, made it possible for them to get a grip on the state treasury, giving it the appearance of seriousness and legitimacy . However, some financial institutions such as Citibank , Barclays and Deutsche Bank have refused to work with the dos Santos family in recent years, according to the documents.

In essence, the allegations were already known, but they have now been backed up with more detailed documents. The “Luanda Leaks” show, among other things, how dos Santos tried to disguise its investments in the real estate sector. Before she and her husband Sindika Dokolo bought an apartment in the luxury residence La Petite Afrique in Monaco in December 2015 for 50 million euros, her husband founded the front company "Athol Limited" in Malta , where they employed close confidants as managing directors. Only Athol Ltd. was the buyer of the luxury property. in appearance. Following this principle, the couple acquired dozens of properties and land in Angola, as well as apartments in London, Dubai, Lisbon and the Portuguese Algarve . Emails also show that Western banks continued to help her despite money laundering regulations, the Panama Papers 2016 and the Paradise Papers a year later . Dos Santos, who lives in London, denied all allegations and called the allegations a "witch hunt", portrayed herself as a victim of political persecution and announced that she would run as a presidential candidate in Angola's 2022 elections.

Isabel dos Santos' private banker, Nuno Ribeiro da Cunha, who is the private banking director of the Portuguese bank Eurobic, was found dead on January 22nd, 2020 in the garage of his apartment building in Lisbon. The Portuguese police assumed a suicide. A few hours earlier, the Angolan public prosecutor had brought charges against dos Santos, Ribeiro da Cunha and four other people for embezzlement, embezzlement and money laundering. Isabel dos Santos was the main shareholder of EuroBic with 42.5% , but had already sold her stake before the indictment. On January 7, 2020, da Cunha had already been found in Vila Nova de Milfontes with serious injuries.

German public prosecutor's office investigates in Frankfurt / Main

In May 2020, the Frankfurt public prosecutor's office opened an investigation into questionable Angola transactions by the state-owned KfW-Ipex-Bank . Investigators from the Federal Criminal Police Office carried out searches at the subsidiary bank of the state credit institute for reconstruction (KfW) in Frankfurt. According to reports, it is, among other things, a suspicion of breach of trust at the expense of the bank. According to media reports, the investigators took several files with documents, and the bank is said to have been asked to deliver additional documents. As is known, Isabel dos Santos received around 50 million euros from the state-owned KfW Ipex Bank.

Corporations and Holdings

Holdings founded by Isabel dos Santos:

  • Unitel International Holdings BV (name change from Kento and Jadeium , registered in Amsterdam , telecommunications, umbrella organization for investments in Portugal )
  • Santoro Finance (registered in Lisbon , banks, etc.)
  • Esperanza (registered in Amsterdam, energy, oil etc.)
  • Condis (registered in Luanda, retail business)
  • Ciminvest (Isabel dos Santos is an investor in Ciminvest SA, which has a stake in the Angolan cement company Nova Cimangola)

For all companies with Isabel dos Santos involvement see:

President of the Red Cross of Angola

Dos Santos resigned her position as President of the Angolan Red Cross in April 2018 after twelve years in office after criticism of her leadership in the press because the salaries of 115 employees had not been paid for eleven months.

Web links

Commons : Isabel dos Santos  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Documentaries

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Filipe S. Fernandes: Isabel dos Santos - Segredos e poder do dinheiro . ( Memento from June 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF) Documentation (Portuguese)
  2. Isabel dos Santos Profile Africa Confidential (English)
  3. Isabel Dos Santos, Daughter Of Angola's President, Is Africa's First Woman Billionaire . forbes.com. Accessed June 23, 2015
  4. Isabel Santos is Africa's first billionaire . derstandard.at. Retrieved June 23, 2015
  5. Forbes: Africa's Richest Women May 2, 2011 (English)
  6. 10 African Millionaires . Forbes, accessed December 31, 2011
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  11. Tatiana Kukanova - A Nature Blog. Retrieved January 23, 2020 (English).
  12. Isabel dos Santos Profile Africa Confidential (English)
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  14. Africa's Richest Woman Isabel Dos Santos To Open Retail Business September 2013 (English)
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  16. Profile on Forbes'
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  23. Source: Público ( Memento of August 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) July 20, 2007 (Portuguese)
  24. Sou empresária, not política . Diário Económico (Portuguese)
  25. Parental help to a daughter in the mother country FAZ Online , September 30, 2011
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  27. Klub-K about Nova Cimangola (Portuguese)
  28. ZON shareholder structure (English)
  29. Announcement CMVM, December 14, 2012 (PDF; 31 kB)
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  31. ^ Forbes profile
  32. Banco BIC: Conselho de administração ( Memento of December 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) ( Portuguese )
  33. Isabel dos Santos já controla 9.99% do BPI (Portuguese)
  34. Angolan businesswoman Isabel dos Santos increases stake in Portuguese bank BPI Macauhub, March 8, 2012 (English)
  35. Jornal Económico on participation in ZAP (Portuguese)
  36. Público: Sonae formalizes agreement with Isabel dos Santos to enter Angola April 16, 2011 (Portuguese)
  37. ^ Nicole Guardiola: Os «novos ricos Angolanos» . (Portuguese)
  38. ^ Stefan Simons: France: The lubricated republic . In: Der Spiegel . No. 42 , 2008, p. 132-136 ( online ).
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  40. Jornal de Negócios (Portuguese April 1, 2013, p. 12)
  41. ^ Unitel to become a second operator in Sao Tome & Principe . (English)
  42. Poderosa Isabel dos Santos Visão , May 2012 (pt)
  43. Sonae fecha acordo com Isabel dos Santos para levar Continente para Angola RTP Online, April 15, 2011 (Portuguese)
  44. Primeiro hipermercado de Isabel dos Santos em Angola abre esta semana jornaldenegocios.pt , May 8, 2016, accessed on January 8, 2020
  45. Isabel dos Santos rompe parceria com a Sonae para os hipermercados jornaldenegocios.pt , September 27, 2015, accessed on January 8, 2020
  46. Nova loja Candando abre no centro de Luanda platinaline.com , April 29, 2019, accessed on January 8, 2020
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  50. Empresária angolana adquire importantes participações em duas grandes empresas portuguesas ( Memento of February 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), Observatório dos Países da Lingua Portuguesa, in German: Observatory of the Portuguese Language Countries , May 14, 2012 (Portuguese)
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  82. Nova Cimangola prevê aumentar produção de cimento . Agência Angola Press (Portuguese)
  83. International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
  84. Cruz Vermelha Angolana (Portuguese) ( Memento from August 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
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