Isabel dos Santos revealed on Tuesday that she will appeal the decision of a Dutch court that concluded that the businesswoman illegally diverted, through falsified documents, 52.6 million euros from the Angolan state oil company Sonangol, to her company.
The decision was handed down by the Business Chamber, a special department of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal which concluded that money was diverted from Sonangol through Dutch stock companies to benefit Isabel dos Santos and her husband, Sindika Dokolo (died 2020 , in Dubai, due to an accident while diving).
The sentence is cited by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which was at the origin of the case that became known as “Luanda Leaks” and had access to the document -not yet published- through the Dutch newspaper NRC.
The Angolan businesswoman justified the appeal by stressing that the court did not analyze “relevant documents presented by the defense, documents that could significantly and substantially modify the decision rendered, unequivocally demonstrating the material veracity of the facts in question.”
“These documents will be presented in the appeal, demonstrating the veracity and existence of the Sonangol minutes, including the corresponding and real deliberations that, for unknown reasons, were ignored,” Isabel dos Santos stressed in a post on the Instagram social network.
The daughter of former Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos also stressed that the court’s decision results from “a lack of knowledge of the normal functioning of businesses.”
The Dutch court’s decision upholds the ICIJ investigation and validates a damning report by a court-appointed director of Esperaza Holding BV, a vehicle used by Sonangol to buy shares in Galp de Portugal.
The report concluded that the 2006 sale of 40% of Esperaza to Exem Energy BV, a company owned by Sindika Dokolo, was the result of an “act of corruption” and should be annulled.
At the end of 2006, Sonangol sold 40% of the shares it owned in Esperaza and handed them over to Exem, a company whose final beneficiaries were Isabel dos Santos and her husband.
The ICIJ points out that Isabel dos Santos and her partners benefited from lucrative businesses linked to oil, diamonds, telecommunications, banks and real estate under the government of José Eduardo dos Santos, who remained in power for almost 40 years.
After his father left the presidency, a position assumed by his successor João Lourenço, currently in his second term, Sonangol challenged in court the legality of the acquisition of Exem’s 40% stake in Esperaza, a dispute resolved in favor of Sonangol, in 2022. by a Dutch arbitration body, which annulled the acquisition for being “contrary to public order and good customs”.
On November 15, 2017, the recently elected president of Angola, João Lourenço, dismissed Isabel dos Santos as president of Sonangol, in the context of the fight against corruption that he assumed as an electoral banner.
At the request of Sonangol, in 2020, the Business Chamber ordered an investigation of Esperaza’s business as of January 1, 2017.
The court concluded that the businesswoman signed false resolutions to channel 52.6 million euros in dividends from Esperaza Holding BV to her own company and that she tried to hide these illegal transfers, with dates prior to her dismissal.
The court said it was established that “everyone who signed one or more decrees knew that they were retroactive” and that the company’s directors should have realized that Isabel dos Santos was trying to make a quick dividend payment, through of falsified and retroactive resolutions. .
“The decision is an intermediate step in the long attempt by the state company Sonangol to recover the stolen millions,” adds the ICIJ.
Source: TSF
