Luanda – Angolan Supreme Court has ordered a new preventive seizure of the assets of the businesswoman Isabel dos Santos and her partners worth 1 billion US dollars, for suspected crimes of embezzlement, influence peddling and money laundering, among others.
In the document to which ANGOP had access on Tuesday, the court said the decision results from a precautionary measure (injuction) filed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, as part of the process to recover the assets of the Angolan State held illegally by private individuals.
This is the second seizure of Isabel dos Santos’ assets ordered by the Angolan courts over the last three years, following the first, in 2019, involving over 1.1 billion US dollars for the same reasons.
The assets to be seized this time include 100 percent of the shareholdings of the company Embalvidro – Indústria, attributed to Isabel dos Santos, as well as all the balances of all her bank accounts and other financial applications associated to her, including securities dossiers in the business woman’s name.
The order also includes the seizure of 100 percent of the shareholdings of UNITEL T+ in Cabo Verde and UNITEL STP, in São Tomé and Príncipe, UNITEL International Holding Bve UNITEL International BV, all of which are attributed to Isabel dos Santos as the owner.
The new process also orders the seizure of 70 percent of the shares of Upstar Comunicações and 70 percent of the shares of MSTAR, S.A., a telecommunications operator in Mozambique, of which Isabel dos Santos is the beneficial owner.
Among the business partners of Isabel dos Santos cited in the new decision are Manuel Domingos Vicente, as former CEO of the telecommunication operator UNITEL (2001-2012) and ex-CEO of the State oil firm Sonangol (1999-2012), and General Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento.
In addition to being a shareholder of the GENI company, the latter also responds as former chairman of the General Assembly of UNITEL (2013-2020) and vice-chairman of the same company from 2020.
The TS order revealed that all investment for the installation of the infrastructure of the first GSM mobile phone network in Angola was made by Sonangol, at a cost of 48.7 million US dollars, but that, strangely, the licence was granted to UNITEL and not to the state oil company as the real investor.
In addition, it continues, the shareholders of UNITEL, namely PT Ventures, SGPS, VIDATEL and GENI, never made any payment in favour of Sonangol, by way of return, the latter having only received invoices for the acquisition of the equipment and other expenses which it paid and recognised as costs, investments and obligations.
In other words, the note explains, UNITEL was set up with public funds from Sonangol, but the dividends that were due to the state were paid to Isabel dos Santos, via her company VIDATEL Limited, allowing her to use the funds to carry out other businesses.
The document adds that Isabel dos Santos had control of UNITEL, which allowed her to direct millions of euros from this company to other entities she controlled abroad.
In one of these operations, financing contracts were signed between UNITEL S.A. and UNITEL International Holding BV, in the Netherlands, through which the former lent the latter a total of 322.9 million euros and 43 million US dollars, between May 2012 and August 2013.
At the time, Isabel dos Santos signed the said financing contracts in her simultaneous capacity as legal representative of UNITEL S.A., and of UNITEL International Holdings BV.
These loans allowed UNITEL International Holdings BV to acquire shareholdings or set up companies in the telecommunications sector in Portugal, Cabo Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe.
In addition, there was a transfer of 654 million US dollars that Isabel dos Santos benefited as dividends from VIDATEL LTD, as a shareholder company of UNITEL S.A., the order of the Supreme Court states
