Angola: Isabel dos Santos’ Sonangol team got $13.1M in 14 months – prosecutor

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Angola: Isabel dos Santos’ Sonangol team got $13.1M in 14 months – prosecutor

9:15 CAT | 16 Jan 2024

File photo: Lusa

Isabel dos Santos and her team cost Sonangol US$13.1 million in salaries between October 2016 and December 2017, according to the indictment relating to the businesswoman’s management of the Angolan oil company.

The document, consulted by Lusa on Monday, states that the salary increases and remuneration of the board of directors were made without complying with legal requirements, and an SAP instance (management software) was created in isolation from the Sonangol instance to process the remunerations, with this information becoming inaccessible.

The salary processing was carried out by one of her associates, Sarju Raikundalia, Sonangol’s finance manager and also accused in the case, and by consultants from the company Odkas, based in Madeira, whose partners included the wife of Mário Leite da Silva, Isabel dos Santos’ manager, who is also accused.

According to the indictment, “exorbitant remunerations” of US$13.1 million (almost €12 million) were processed in this period of just over a year.

The amount included basic salaries and other allowances for 32 employees of the governing bodies, of whom eight received US$8.9 million (€8.12 million) and the remaining 24 received US$4.2 million.

Isabel dos Santos’ basic salary totalled US$50,448 a month (around €46,000), with Paulino Jerónimo the second highest paid with US$41,145 a month.

Paulino Jerónimo, who was dismissed as CEO by Isabel dos Santos, had already been appointed secretary of state for oil under the current Angolan president, João Lourenço, and is the current president of the National Oil and Gas Agency.

As for Sarju Raikundalia, whose executive duties the Angolan public prosecutor’s office argues were assigned illegally, he benefited unduly from the salary of an executive director, when he should have benefited from only 50% of this amount, and also ordered the payment of salary advances in his favour through Sonangol Limited (London).

The case involves five defendants accused of damaging the Angolan state by more than US$208 million (around €190 million) during their management of Sonangol.

Angolan businesswoman Isabel dos Santos, daughter of former president José Eduardo dos Santos and who has lived outside Angola for several years, is accused of 11 offences.

Source: Lusa