LONDON, UK
Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos, daughter of the country’s former president, can be personally added to a $400 million lawsuit brought by Angolan telecoms operator Unitel against a company she owns, London’s High Court ruled on Thursday.
Unitel sued dos Santos’ Dutch
company Unitel International Holdings (UIH) in 2020 over loans that were
provided in 2012 and 2013, when dos Santos was a director of Unitel, to fund
UIH’s acquisition of shares in telecoms companies.
The loans were not repaid and
around $395 million plus interest remains outstanding.
The two companies are not
related despite having the same name and dos Santos, who owns UIH, resigned as
a director of Unitel in 2020.
Unitel had applied to
personally add dos Santos – Africa’s first female billionaire, whose father
Jose Eduardo dos Santos ruled Angola for 38 years until 2017 – to its case
against UIH.
Judge Mark Pelling ruled
Thursday that dos Santos should be added to the existing lawsuit.
He said Unitel has a
“realistic prospect of success” in relation to its allegations that dos Santos
breached her duties as a director of Unitel.
She “vehemently denies
breaching any of her director’s duties”. Her lawyers say Unitel is responsible
for UIH’s inability to pay, because of its alleged role in the “unlawful
seizure by the Angolan state of UIH’s assets”. Around $1 billion of her assets
in Angola were seized last year, while other assets linked to her have been
seized in Portugal.
She has faced corruption
accusations for years, and allegations that she and her husband steered $1
billion in state funds to companies in which they held stakes during her
father’s presidency, including oil giant Sonangol.
Around $1 billion of her
assets in Angola were seized last year, while other assets linked to her have
been seized in Portugal.
Dos Santos, who says she lives
in Dubai, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and her lawyers have described
the allegations against her as part of a “political conspiracy”.
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