Angolan businesswoman Isabel dos Santos is accused of eleven crimes committed in a trial involving her management of the Angolan state oil company between 2016 and 2017, according to the indictment that Lusa had access to this Monday.
Isabel dos Santos is charged with embezzlement, qualified fraud, abuse of power, breach of trust, forgery, criminal association, economic involvement in a business, influence peddling, money laundering, tax fraud and qualified tax fraud.
In addition to the daughter of the former President of Angola, the accused are Paula Oliveira, friend and associate (six crimes), her former manager and friend Mario Leite da Silva (six crimes), her former financial administrator at Sonangol Saryu Raikundalia (nine crimes), and consulting company PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) (two crimes).
The Angolan prosecutor’s office, which analyzes in this document the management of José Eduardo dos Santos’ daughter between June 2016 and November 2017, points to a number of irregularities, including a parallel management scheme and contracts concluded with related companies through which illegal payments was made.
According to the indictment, as part of her administrative management and taking advantage of her status as the daughter of the President (who died in 2022), Isabel dos Santos “duly negotiated with the defendants Mario Silva, Saryu Raikundalia and Paula Oliveira, carefully created a plan to vigorously deceive the Angolan state, convincing The board of directors make decisions that benefit them.”
The Angolan businesswoman was initially invited to join an assessment committee designed to improve the performance of the oil sector as an independent consultant for Wise Intelligence Solution.
The company, which had “no relevant activities and was inactive”, had a consulting contract with the Ministry of Finance worth €8.5 million and coordinated the work of a group of other consultants, including the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), PwC, VdA (Vieira de legal Almeida) and Accenture.
On June 3, 2016, Isabel dos Santos was appointed president of the board of directors of Sonangol, a structure that also included Saryu Raikundalia, initially a non-executive director, who simultaneously became the executive director responsible for the financial management of the oil company. when who owned shares in PwC.
According to the ministry, Isabel dos Santos began by centralizing the management and administration of the Sonangol group’s businesses, with the Board of Directors (CA) and the Executive Board functioning as one, bringing with her consultants from PwC, BCG and VdA to set up a parallel management scheme. The accused allegedly deceived CA Sonangol into deciding to hire Wise, whose contract with the Treasury had expired, despite a conflict of interest, by authorizing alleged late payments through Sonangol Limited (London) for that company by Investec Bank.
However, after executing the payment orders, he closed Sonangol’s Hong Kong accounts because they were linked to alleged money laundering operations, restrictions that forced Isabel dos Santos to open Sonangol bank accounts in 2017 with Millennium BCP, BFA, BIC. Angola and Eurobic, enterprises in which he also had interests.
Faced with suspicions of fraud and in order to disguise the business as themselves and further divert public funds, Isabel dos Santos and Mario Silva “created a new company, Ironsea, registered in Dubai on February 1, 2017. took up a contract position at Wise in May 2017.
The indictment states that Ironsea was created to “legitimize and channel improper payments from Sonangol for the sole purpose of misappropriating public money”, but not without some obstacles as the CEO of Sonangol Limited, Maria Julia, refused to sign a service contract. “for legal reasons and on suspicion of fraud.”
Following the dismissal of the director in a retroactive order, Isabel dos Santos appointed a relative to the position, meanwhile deciding to change the name of Ironsea to Matter, the company through which she would subcontract several consultants, including PwC. also accused in this case.
According to the indictment, Ironsea/Matter provided support to two other companies owned by Isabel dos Santos, Fidequity Fine and Santoro, which also received almost 2 million euros for alleged services. Ironsea/Matter’s revenue in 2017 was more than $130 million (€118.7 million), even after the administration led by Isabel dos Santos was dismissed on November 15 of that year and invoices were issued with changed dates .
Before leaving, Isabel dos Santos and her partners also ordered large bank transfers in favor of Mater, the payments being made “extremely quickly and without following procedures.”
Paula Oliveira, facing the imminent closure of Ironsea/Matter’s accounts, will also transfer around $30 million (€27.4 million) to Eurobic accounts belonging to her two companies. The Public Ministry states that although Mario Silva and Paula Oliveira, as well as some consultants, were not part of the administration, they regularly took part in AC meetings.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
I am Michael Melvin, an experienced news writer with a passion for uncovering stories and bringing them to the public. I have been working in the news industry for over five years now, and my work has been published on multiple websites. As an author at 24 News Reporters, I cover world section of current events stories that are both informative and captivating to read.