Isabel Dos Santos: The former richest woman in Africa now declared wanted by Interpol

Once acclaimed and celebrated as the richest woman in Africa, Isabel Dos Santos at her height was worth about $3.5 billion, according to Forbes. Dos Santos had the charisma of a president or first lady of a country. She always put on a charming smile whenever she was in the public eye.

In what seemed like a movie, Dos Santos lost it all, falling off the Forbes billionaire list and almost into obscurity. The fame, respect, and of course, billions of dollars were gone after it was alleged by Angolan authorities that she and her husband accumulated riches through embezzlement and money laundering.

Today she is declared wanted by Interpol to answer questions bothering on corruption, misappropriation of public funds and others.

Born on the 20th of April 1973 in Baku, Azerbaijan, Isabel is the eldest daughter of Angola's longtime President, José Eduardo dos Santos and his first wife, the Russian-born Tatiana Kukanova. Her father was at the time an official in the Communist-aligned Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA while her mother was a chess champion.

The two met while studying in Azerbaijan which was at the time under the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR). After the Portuguese colonial regime collapsed, José Eduardo dos Santos took over the leadership of the free country and the family moved into the presidential palace. When the country plunged into a civil war, Isabel went with her mother to England to be educated.

Dos Santos who is a citizen of both Angola and Russia attended schools in England - Cobham Hall School in Kent and then St Paul's Girls' School in London. She later went to King's College in London to study electrical engineering.

Dos Santos met her husband while they were both studying at King's College in London. Sindika is the son of a Congolese millionaire, Augustin Dokolo Sanu and a Danish mother, Hanne Kruse. Dos Santos and Sindika got married in 2002 and have three children together.

Sindika, a business tycoon and art collector and his wife made a career in various sectors, including oil, diamonds, retail, cement and telecommunications. Sindika died in a diving accident in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, on October 2020 at the age of 48.

As the daughter of Angola's longest ruler, President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled for 38 years (1979-2017), Isabel is alleged to have found opportunities to garner significant stakes in Angola’s strategic industries.

With her father's influence, both direct and indirect, Dos Santos was able to get stakes from many companies that wanted to do business in the oil-rich country. She owned large chunks of Angola's banking, diamond, cement and telecom industries.

She also owned stakes in a satellite TV chain, a brewery and supermarket franchises, becoming the most influential businesswoman in Angola. Interestingly, more than half of her assets were stakes in Portuguese companies, setting her up for more international influence and credibility.

She acquired a $500 million stake in ZON Multimedia, a Portuguese telecommunications and media company providing mobile and fixed telephony, cable television, satellite television and internet. Other holdings of hers include:

- Trans Africa Investment Services, a vehicle company founded together with her mother for the diamond business based in Gibraltar, a British overseas territory.

- Condis, a retail business based in Luanda, Angola

- Unitel International Holdings B.V, a company vehicle for dos Santos' investment in telecommunications based in Amsterdam

- Esperaza Holding B.V., a company that is into energy and oil, and is based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

- Santoro Finance: company vehicle for dos Santos' investment in Banco BPI based in Lisbon, Portugal.

The empire comes crashing down

Isabel Dos Santos' empire started crumbling after her father, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, stepped down from office in 2017. The new president, João Lourenço vowed to fight corruption in the country.

Two months after assuming office, Lourenço sacked Dos Santos as the head of Sonangol, the country's oil company. In December 2019, an Angolan court froze assets in the country belonging to Dos Santos and her husband, as part of a corruption investigation.

Angolan courts charged Mrs Dos Santos with a long list of crimes including embezzlement and money laundering, allegedly committed during her time at the helm of the state oil giant Sonangol. She and her husband were accused of steering payments of more than $1 billion (£800,000) from publicly-owned companies to firms in which they held stakes, before moving it out of the country.

In January 2020, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published a detailed report accusing Dos Santos of looting state coffers during her father's 38-year rule which was characterised by corruption, authoritarianism and nepotism.

The report, referred to as Luanda Leaks claimed that Dos Santos and her husband had links to more than 400 companies and subsidiaries in 41 countries and made a fortune at the expense of the Angolan people.

Between 2019 and 2020, authorities in Angolan, Portugal, The Netherlands and the United States had frozen assets and bank accounts belonging to Isabel dos Santos and her husband and launched investigations into her activities.

In her response to all the allegations, Dos Santos maintains that the allegations against her were political persecutions by President Lourenco. She also said that the allegations made against her in the Luanda Leaks were concentrated, orchestrated and well-coordinated political attacks.

Interpol issues arrest warrant on Dos Santos

Following a request from Angolan prosecutors, Interpol issued a Red Notice against Isabel Dos Santos. Interpol Red Notice alleges Dos Santos created corrupt financial mechanisms between 2015 and 2017 and enriched herself with state resources.

A “Red Notice” request was a call to law enforcement worldwide “to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action.”

Dos Santos who mostly lives in England, United Arab Emirates and Portugal has however responded stating in an interview with DW that she was yet to be notified of any arrest warrant and is prepared to face corruption charges related to the source of her personal wealth.