Angola: Assets of ex-president’s daughter frozen over graft

Assets of the daughter of former Angolan President, Eduardo dos Santos have been frozen by an Angolan court. The court ordered the freezing of assets held by dos Santos’ daughter Isabel over corruption allegations.

State news agency Angop reported of the court decision on Tuesday. This is the latest high-profile case in the government’s anti-corruption drive.

The Angolan government filed the case in court as it seeks to recover around $1 billion of funds it believes are owed to it by Isabel dos Santos and her business associates.

“The ruling is the result of an injunction filed by the Angolan state … in which it requests the payment of USD 1,136,996,825.56,” the state news agency said.

The state agency also reported that the court ordered the freezing of bank accounts in Angola, dos Santos’ stake in telecoms firm Unitel and bank Fomento de Angola (BFA), among other assets.

Angola is probing allegations that Isabel dos Santos authorized offshore payments days after she was dismissed from Sonangol.

Isabel dos Santos who has repeatedly denied wrongdoing said she was confident she will prevail.

She wrote on Twitter late on Monday “I would like to leave a message of tranquillity and confidence to my teams. We will continue, every day, in every business, doing our best and fighting for what I believe in for Angola. The road is long, the truth will prevail. United we stand stronger.”

Isabel is ranked as Africa’s wealthiest woman by Forbes. Until recently she chaired state oil company Sonangol but was sacked in 2017 by President Joao Lourenço.

President Lourenço has been on a campaign of cracking down on corruption in Angola

Source: Africafeeds.com