Credit: Wikipedia Commons /  Isabel dos Santos, daughter of former Angola president José Eduardo dos Santos

By Gary Raynaldo    DIPLOMATIC TIMES

Isabel dos Santos, also known as  “the princess” in  oil-rich African nation Angola, has been  charged with  money laundering, influence peddling, and other financial crimes stemming during the time she was head of the state’s  petroleum company Sonangol.  Prosecutors this week charged Angola’s first daughter of former president  José Eduardo dos Santos with committing crimes to enrich herself amid an investigation into embezzlement of millions of dollars  from Sonangol.    Documents leaked this week alleged the daughter of ex-president Jose Eduardo dos Santos plundered state revenues to build her fortune, estimated at $2.1 billion (1.82 billion euros) -France24. 

“Isabel dos Santos is accused of mismanagement and embezzlement of funds during her tenure at Sonangol and is thus charged in the first instance with the crimes of money laundering, influence peddling, harmful management … forgery of documents, among other economic crimes,”

Angola prosecutor general Helder Pitta Gros told a news conference late Wednesday.

 Isabel dos Santos:  Banker Found Dead in Lisbon

A banker implicated in the embezzlement and money-laundering case against Africa’s richest woman, Isabel dos Santos, has been found dead in Lisbon, the BBC reported.  Nuno Ribeiro da Cunha, 45, managed the account of oil firm Sonangol, formerly chaired by Ms Dos Santos, at the small Portuguese lender EuroBic.

Angola is seeking to reclaim $1 billion that Isabel dos Santos and her associates allegedly owe  as part of an anti-corruption drive launched by her father’s successor has targeted the former first family’s assets.

The Angola Court also froze her  assets as part of a graft investigation looking at alleged irregularities involving state companies, including the oil giant Sonangol, and a diamond-marketing firm, Sodiam.   In 2017,  José Eduardo dos Santos’ nearly 40-year grip on power ended with the election of President Lourenco, who made cleaning up past corruption a priority in his new administration of of the oil-rich, but poverty-stricken  Southern African nation. 

Isabel dos Santos Denied Any Wrongdoing – Claims She Is Being Targeted For Political Reasons

The billionaire daughter of Angola’s ex-president has said  she would consider running for president in the next election in 2022.   In her statement on Thursday, Ms Dos Santos denied the allegations, describing them as a “very concentrated, orchestrated and well-co-ordinated political attack, ahead of elections in Angola next year”. -the BBC. 

“It is an attempt to neutralise me and to discredit the legacy of President dos Santos and his family. No-one should be taken in by these diversionary tactics,” she said.  Ms Dos Santos also contends the “stolen documents” were leaked “selectively” to “give a false impression of my business activities“.