– Isabel dos Santos convicted of embezzlement of 52.6 million euros – Angola

Isabel dos Santos was found guilty by the Amsterdam Court of Appeal of mismanagement and falsification of documents, which allowed the transfer of 52.6 million euros from Sonangol. The same punishment was applied to Mário Leite Silva, the former right-hand man of the businesswoman and her financial director in Sonangol, Sarju Raikundalia.

News provided by SIC Notes.

The Dutch court found that Isabel dos Santos had illegally ordered the transfer of dividends from Esperaza – a holding company owned by Sonangol – to a company owned by the businesswoman, giving cause to the Angolan oil company to present itself as a plaintiff.

Isabel dos Santos has already responded to the conviction, having posted a statement on her Instagram page that she will appeal. “Having learned of the decision of the Dutch Chamber of Commerce Court regarding the process of evaluating the management of the Dutch company Esperaza, we inform you that an appeal will be filed against this decision (which leads to the lack of knowledge of the normal course of business) based, in particular, on the fact that the Chamber of Commerce Court did not analyze Clearly relevant documents presented by the defense, documents that could significantly and significantly change the decision issued, unequivocally demonstrating the material correctness of the facts in question.

He adds, “These documents will be presented in the appeal, which prove the fact and existence of the Sonangol minutes, including the corresponding and real deliberations that were ignored for unknown reasons.”

Isabel dos Santos currently lives in Dubai, and is limited in her leaving, since she is the subject of an international arrest warrant issued by Interpol.

A preliminary report of an investigation by an expert in an Amsterdam court, dated October 31, 2022, concluded that the alleged “misappropriation” of 52.6 million euros by Esperaza was based on deliberations with “wrong” dates, therefore “null and” that businesswoman Isabel dos Santos acted In an apparent conflict of interest.

Esperaza is a Dutch holding company, currently controlled 60% by Angolan state oil company and 40% by Exem Energy, a company 100% owned by Isabel dos Santos and her husband, Sindica Dokolo, who died in 2020. Esperaza controls 45% of Amorim Energia, which in turn is the largest shareholder of Galp Energia, with 33.34%.

In November last year it became known that the Chamber of Companies, a special division of the Court of Appeal in Amsterdam with jurisdiction in corporate law cases, had ordered this investigation into Esperaza’s policies and actions for a period beginning January 1, 2017, at the request of Sonangol and Esperaza itself.

According to the citation order provided by Esperaza on July 15, 2022, the “disease” would have occurred in 2017, when Angola’s current head of state, Joao Lourenco, removed Isabel dos Santos as president of Sonangol, whom her father had nominated in 2016 when he was He is still the country’s president. In the period leading up to her dismissal, but “especially immediately after,” Isabel dos Santos carried out a “series of operations” with the help of those who, according to the letter, were her “intermediaries” to “extract more than $130 million from Sonangol and €52.6 million from Esperaza.” “.