LONDON, England
Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos on Monday lost an appeal to overturn an order freezing up to 580 million pounds ($778 million) of her assets as part a lawsuit at London's High Court.
Dos Santos – Africa's first
female billionaire, whose father Jose Eduardo dos Santos ruled Angola for 38
years until 2017 – is being sued by Angolan telecoms operator Unitel.
Unitel was granted a worldwide
freezing order over dos Santos' assets in December and the Court of Appeal on
Monday rejected her appeal against that decision.
Dos Santos has faced
corruption accusations in Angola for years. She denies the allegations and says
she is the target of a long-running political vendetta.
She is being sued by Unitel
over loans it made to separate Dutch company Unitel International Holdings
(UIH) in 2012 and 2013, when she was a Unitel director, to fund UIH's
acquisition of shares in telecoms companies.
Dos Santos owns and controls
UIH, the Court of Appeal said in its ruling.
Unitel and UIH are not related
despite bearing the same name, and dos Santos resigned as a director of Unitel
in 2020.
The loans were not repaid and
around 300 million pounds is outstanding, Unitel's lawyers argued at the High
Court.
But dos Santos – who claims to
be the victim of a "campaign of oppression" by Angola – says Unitel
is itself responsible for UIH's inability to repay the loans because of its
alleged role in Angola's unlawful seizure of UIH assets.
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