Angola’s Dos Santos vows ‘to fight’ graft claims

LUANDA: Isabel dos Santos, the tycoon daughter of Angola’s ex-president who is at the centre of an anti-graft investigation, on Thursday vowed she was ready to fight against what she called “misleading and untrue” allegations. Dos Santos, dubbed ‘the princess’ in Angola, is accused of using her father’s influence to steal millions of dollars from state companies and siphon the funds overseas during his rule.

The allegations stretch across Angola’s state oil and diamond industries and banks to Lisbon. Named in the probe, the head of one of Angola’s largest banks has resigned while a Portuguese banker has been found dead in an apparent suicide. Angola’s prosecutors have accused dos Santos of mismanagement and embezzlement of funds during her tenure at Sonangol, Angola’s state-owned oil giant which she once headed during her father’s rule. But Dos Santos on Thursday countered the claims. “The allegations which have been made against me over the last few days are extremely misleading and untrue,” she said in a statement issued through a public relations firm in London. She said was “ready to fight through the international courts to defend my good name”. Mario Leite da Silva, who was chairman of Banco de Fomento Angola (BFA), the third largest bank in the country, has resigned after being named in the corruption probe, according to a letter seen by AFP.

Most of the ex-president’s family have moved abroad since he stepped down in 2017, and are believed to mostly spend time between London and Portugal. Isabel dos Santos’ whereabouts were not clear on Thursday. The eldest child of ex-president Jose Eduardo dos Santos was already the target of an anti-graft campaign led by her father’s successor, Joao Lourenco. Angola’s Prosecutor General Helder Pitta Gros said dos Santos is charged with money laundering, influence peddling, harmful management, forgery of documents among other economic crimes.