Angola’s Isabel dos Santos resents UK sanctions over ‘dirty money’

Angolan tycoon Isabel dos Santos, once described as “Africa’s richest woman”, has blamed Britain for imposing sanctions on her, telling the BBC the move came as a surprise as she had not been found guilty of “any corruption in any court in any country”.

Last month, the British government branded the daughter of Angola’s former president a “notorious kleptocrat” and froze her assets and banned her from entering the country for allegedly siphoning wealth from Angola’s rich oil.

She said the Angolan government was behind the campaign to smear her image.

“At the end of the day, it’s political,” Dos Santos, 51, told the BBC’s Africa Daily podcast from her base in Dubai.

“There was no investigation where someone came and investigated or looked at the evidence or asked me to explain. There was no due process,” she said.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced sanctions against Dos Santos as part of his campaign to fight “dirty money”.

The government statement states it “systematically abused its position in state-owned companies to squander at least 350 million pounds ($442 million), depriving Angola of resources and funding for much-needed development.”

A spokesman for Angola’s attorney general said it is not a political institution and only investigates evidence of alleged crime. They said she had been accused of several crimes and therefore needed to defend herself.

A UK Foreign Office spokesman said that under the Global Anti-Corruption Sanctions Regulation, the UK could “designate a person where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the person is involved or has been involved in serious corruption”. They also noted that anyone subject to sanctions can request a review at any time.

The allegations against Dos Santos, which she denies, were first made in 2020 BBC Panorama reported on the leaked documents which was given to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

The exposé, known as the “Luanda Leaks”, claimed that one of the most suspicious transactions was made through a London-based company.

Dos Santos, the eldest daughter of former president José Eduardo dos Santos, who was in power from 1979 to 2017, attended private schools in the UK during Angola’s long civil war.

After graduating from King’s College London with a degree in electrical engineering, she got a job at a consulting firm in Europe.

But when she was in her twenties, Dos Santos decided to pursue a more entrepreneurial career back home. She told the BBC that she started by delivering cases of beer Uber-style to restaurants and shops.

She went on to build a huge business empire, creating a mobile phone company, a satellite TV operator, a commercial bank, a brewery and a cement plant – with stakes in other companies in Angola and Portugal.

A month before her 40th birthday, she entered the list of rich people of Forbes magazine and was not only the richest woman in Africa, but also the youngest billionaire on the continent.

Dos Santos told BBC Africa Daily that she never thought of herself that way, but saw herself as a “pioneer”.

“I am also the largest private employer in my country. I have created over 200,000 jobs. I was one of the biggest taxpayers of my country and contributed the most to the development of Angola’s economy.’

In 2016, she was appointed head of the struggling state oil company Sonangol. Her appointment was challenged by critics at the time, but the Supreme Court upheld it, she said.

“I really had experience working in the private sector. I have a special expertise in turning around companies… that are doing badly, to push them to perform better.”

Some of the most serious corruption allegations against her date back to when she ran Sonangol.

Months after her father stepped down in 2017, she was fired by his successor, President Joao Laurence, and her assets were frozen two years later.

The former first daughter of Angola believes that Lourenço, who targeted the Dos Santos family as part of the fight against corruption, betrayed her father: “He started blaming the past, saying that everything that happened before him was bad.

“But he himself is from the (ruling) MPLA, he was the vice-president of the party. He was the Minister of Defense.

“If anything, I think he had much more to do with the Angolan economy and the decision-making in Angola and the political decision-making than most Angolans.”

Dos Santos is also angry that, despite her assets being frozen in Angola five years ago, the case has yet to go to court – something she says usually takes no more than 18 months, as this is a civil case that usually involves claims for unpaid debts. She says that she is not threatened with a criminal case.

She also claims the original freezing order was based on forged documents, including a passport in her name signed by the late martial arts expert Bruce Lee.

A spokesman for Angola’s attorney general said they would not publicly discuss the details of any ongoing litigation, but said any evidence that documents were falsified would have to be presented in court.

Forbes has removed her from its list of top billionaires until 2021 – Dos Santos explains that the asset freeze means she can no longer receive dividend payments and cannot receive any financial contributions from her companies.

The mother of three has also had to deal with personal loss over the past few years – her husband died while diving and when her father died in 2022, she did not return to Angola for his funeral.

If she returns to Angola, she could well face arrest – at the behest of the government, Interpol has issued a Red Notice, which is a request to “locate and provisionally arrest” someone, but is not an international arrest warrant.

Dos Santos says that after these difficult years and the continued asset freeze, she wants people to hear her side of the “complicated” story to “hopefully start to clear up the misconceptions that exist.”

When asked if she would ever run for president, she said it was “possible”, echoing comments she made to the BBC four years ago.

“Look, I will always serve my country,” she said. “To lead is to serve, and I want to serve Angola, be it in politics, or in business, or in philanthropy, or in culture.”