LUANDA, Angola
The Angola Supreme Court (ASC) has ordered the preventive seizure of several assets of former president's daughter Isabel dos Santos, valued at $1 billion, as requested by the Public Ministry, media reported Tuesday.
According to the state-owned Jornal de Angola, the order comes after indications of embezzlement and other crimes.
"There are indications of embezzlement, influence peddling, economic participation in business and money laundering, foreseen and punishable", it says adding that Isabel should only be notified after the seizure of assets.
The publication quoted the order signed by Justice Daniel Geraldes, dated December 19 which states that "all the balances of the current accounts with title or co-title, headquartered in all the banks, including term deposit accounts, other financial applications that are associated to those, including dossiers of securities in the name of the defendant Isabel dos Santos, are seized”.
Some of these accounts are in countries such as Mozambique, Cape Verde and Sao Tome and Principe, it added.
ASC also ordered the freezing of 70 per cent of the shares of Mozambique telecommunications company Mstar, in which Isabel dos Santos "is the effective beneficiary," and authorised the seizure of 70 per cent of the defendant's shares in Upstar Comunicação.
The Court also ordered the seizure of 100 per cent of the shares of the companies UnitelL T+ in Cape Verde and Unitel STP in Sao Tome and Principe, in which the Angolan businesswoman is also the beneficial owner.Embalvidro, Unitel International Honding and Unitel International are other companies named in the court order.
Isabel dos Santos, 49, who was once celebrated as the richest woman in Angola and in Africa, is currently seeing the Luanda government turning its back on her.
Isabel, who is also a Russian national, was for a long while celebrated in her country, especially during her late father's 38-year regime.
She was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, during the Cold War era to a Russian mother Tatiana Kukanova, who met with her father José Eduardo dos Santos while attending university.
President dos Santos ruled Angola from 1979 to 2017.
During his time in office, senior dos Santos ruled the country like his personal firm. His close allies including family members were largely accused of embezzling state institutions.
President Eduardo dos Santos marriage with Kukanova didn’t last.
In 1979, Kukanova moved to London with her daughter Isabel where she spent her teenage years attending an elite prep school and wentto King’s College London, where she got an engineering degree and met her husband-to-be Sindika Dokolo.
Mr Dokolo was a wealthy Congolese businessman.
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