{"id":224331,"date":"2022-11-28T12:00:45","date_gmt":"2022-11-28T12:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=224331"},"modified":"2022-11-23T04:38:14","modified_gmt":"2022-11-23T04:38:14","slug":"interpol-arrest-warrant-issued-for-angolan-billionaire-isabel-dos-santos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/11\/interpol-arrest-warrant-issued-for-angolan-billionaire-isabel-dos-santos\/","title":{"rendered":"Interpol Arrest Warrant Issued for Angolan Billionaire Isabel dos Santos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sources say the warrant relates to allegedly corrupt dealings exposed in ICIJ\u2019s Luanda Leaks investigation.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Isabel dos Santos (Nuno Coimbra via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA-4.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

19 Nov 2022 – <\/em>The international police organization Interpol has issued a warrant for the arrest of Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos, according to sources.<\/p>\n

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Dos Santos, the daughter of Angola\u2019s former authoritarian president Jos\u00e9 Eduardo dos Santos, was the subject of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists\u2019 2020 Luanda Leaks investigation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Luanda Leaks reporting showed how insider deals, political connections<\/a> and an army of Western enablers helped dos Santos amass a fortune<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The expos\u00e9 revealed how the billionaire and her allies benefited from lucrative deals in oil, diamonds, telecommunications, banking and real estate.<\/p>\n

According to Portugal\u2019s press Lusa news agency, Interpol issued the warrant following a request from Angolan prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Pol\u00edcia Judici\u00e1ria sources in Lisbon said the Interpol warrant alleges dos Santos created corrupt financial mechanisms between 2015 and 2017.<\/p>\n

The mechanisms, it alleges, were created \u201cwith the intention of obtaining illicit financial gains and whitewashing suspicious criminal operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sources said the warrant further alleges that dos Santos acted upon information she had obtained as then-head of Angola\u2019s state oil company, Sonangol.<\/p>\n

Lusa said dos Santos, 49, was wanted for alleged embezzlement, fraud, influence peddling and money laundering.<\/p>\n

Interpol declined to comment when asked to confirm that it had made an international request for dos Santos\u2019s arrest on receipt of a \u201cRed Notice\u201d from Angola, saying it did not comment on specific cases except in special circumstances.<\/p>\n

Interpol said a \u201cRed Notice\u201d request was a call to law enforcement worldwide \u201cto locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dos Santos has previously denied benefiting unfairly from her father\u2019s position as Angolan president or any other wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

The Luanda Leaks investigation, which had a profound impact on Africa\u2019s then richest woman and her family<\/a>, uncovered dos Santos\u2019 dealings in a network of companies, including Sonangol.<\/p>\n

Angolan and Portuguese authorities froze dos Santos\u2019 assets and bank accounts and launched criminal investigations. The business empire was largely dismantled<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last year, ICIJ\u2019s Pandora Papers<\/a> investigation tied dos Santos and other powerful Angolan figures accused of embezzling billions<\/a> of dollars to financial hideaways.<\/p>\n

Subsequently, the United States froze dos Santos\u2019s assets and bank accounts<\/a> and launched criminal investigations into her business.<\/p>\n

Dos Santos has homes in Dubai and London and is believed to visit Portugal often.<\/p>\n

Her father, Jos\u00e9 Eduardo dos Santos, an autocrat who ruled over Angola for decades, died in Barcelona last year following a long illness.<\/p>\n

Her husband, Sindika Dokolo, died the previous year in a free diving accident off an island near Dubai.<\/p>\n

An international tribunal in the Netherlands ruled after his death that he and his wife had obtained a stake in the Portuguese oil company Galp in a way that was \u201ctainted by illegality.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

The tribunal ordered dos Santos to return the $500 million stake which was secured in a controversial deal through Sonangol when her father was still president.<\/p>\n

ICIJ revealed<\/a>\u00a0 that dos Santos and Dokolo had obtained the Galp stake for just a $15 million initial deposit, in the deal overseen at the time by dos Santos\u2019 father.<\/p>\n

The Luanda Leaks investigation was based on a trove of 715,000 documents<\/a> including emails, charts, contracts, audits, and accounts that help explain how dos Santos built a business empire worth an estimated $2 billion.<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0MyrbVoJgnY<\/p>\n

The Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa<\/a>, an organization based in Paris, France, obtained the files and shared them with ICIJ.<\/p>\n

In a statement sent to Reuters today, dos Santos\u2019 representatives said she had not been made aware of the arrest warrant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dos Santos\u2019 business dealings also featured in ICIJ\u2019s FinCEN Files<\/a> investigation.<\/p>\n

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This story has been updated since original publication with comment from Interpol.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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Latest from Luanda Leaks:<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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