Angola: Supreme Court orders seizure of Isabel dos Santos assets worth $1B, including 70% of Mozambique based MSTAR

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Angola: Supreme Court orders seizure of Isabel dos Santos assets worth $1B, including 70% of Mozambique based MSTAR

3:06 CAT | 27 Dec 2022

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: DW]

The 70% of the shares of MTAR, a telecommunications company based in Mozambique, owned by Isabel dos Santos should also be seized.

The Angolan Supreme Court (TS) has ordered the preventive seizure of the assets of businesswoman Isabel dos Santos, valued at US$1 billion (941 million euros), including 100% of the shares of Embalvidro, of which she is the effective beneficiary.

According to the ruling to which Lusa News Agency had access on Tuesday, the TS criminal chamber said that the seizure also covers all the bank balances of deposits in all the banks, including term deposit accounts, other financial investments that are associated to them and including securities dossiers in the name of Isabel dos Santos.

The order from the Angolan Supreme Court, dated 19 December, 2022, said that amongst the assets listed for seizure were 70% of the shares in Upstar Comunicação company of which the “defendant is the effective beneficiary.

In Mstar S.A, a telecommunications company in Mozambique, 70% of the shares owned by Isabel dos Santos, daughter of former Angolan president, José Eduardo dos Santos, who died last August in Spain, should be seized.

The preventive seizure of those assets, the order signed by judge Daniel Modesto Geraldes, was made under Angolan law and article 31 of the United Nations Convention against Corruption.

The Court also ordered the seizure of 100% of Unitel T+ in Cabo Verde and Unitel STP SARL in São Tomé and Príncipe of which the defendant is the beneficial owner and 100% of the shares in Unitel International Holding BV and Unitel International BV of which Isabel dos Santos is also the beneficial owner.

The TS said the measure arose because there were “strong indications” that the businesswoman had obtained “illicit advantages,” for setting up the companies with funds from the Angolan state.

The Angolan Court lists, in the long order, 69 reasons to justify its decision to determine the total value of the seizure estimated at US$1,000,000,000.00.

Documents from Angolan state oil company Sonangol and Unitel, rogatory letters from the Netherlands and Portugal and the processing of data resulting from financial analysis by the national asset recovery service (SENRA) of the Angolan public prosecutor’s office (PGR) are the “elements of the case that indicate the facts,” charged to the businesswoman.

“There are indications of the crime of embezzlement, influence peddling, economic participation in business and money laundering, provided for and punishable under Angolan law,” the ruling said.

The ruling noted that until recently Unitel SA, a company nationalised by the Angolan state last November, was owned by four shareholders each with 25% of its share capital and that Mercury-Mstelcom S.A is a subsidiary of Sonangol.

It noted that Vidatel Lda, set up on 14/12/1999, with its headquarters in the British Virgin Islands, has Isabel dos Santos as the beneficial owner and Geni SA, whose beneficial owner is Angolan general Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento “Dino”.

In December 2019, the shares of Unitel SA held by Vidatel were seized by the Angolan justice and in January 2020, Sonangol acquired shares in Unitel SA that belonged to PT Ventures SPGS, a company under Portuguese law held until January 2020 by Africatel Holdings.

The shares of Vidatel and Geni were seized, the order of the Angolan supreme court highlights, noting that the investment for the creation of Unitel SA belonged exclusively to Sonangol and it became a partner via its subsidiary Mercury.

“Given that the initial investment belonged to Sonangol, the proceeds of the business (dividends) should also belong to the state and not be given to Geni and Vidatel,” it said.

According to the order, due to the proximity of positions with Geni and Mercury, whose representative was former Angolan vice-president, Manuel Vicente, as chairman of the board of directors of the Angolan operator, between 2001 and 2012, and due to the impossibility of intervention by PT Ventures, Isabel dos Santos “had control of Unitel SA, which allowed her to direct many millions of euros from Unitel SA to entities under her control.

Isabel dos Santos “also transferred sums from Unitel SA to Unitel International Holdings BV, a company based in the Netherlands, incorporated on 4 May 2012 and controlled by Isabel dos Santos herself, its sole beneficial owner”.

In effect, between May 8, 2012 and August 28, 2013, the note states, seven financing contracts were signed between Unitel SA and Unitel International Holdings BV, through which the former lent the latter the total amount of €322,979,711.00 and US$43,000,000.00, amounts that the beneficiary company “undertook to repay within 10 years”.

These loans, “in which Isabel dos Santos signed the financing contracts in her capacity as legal representative of both companies”, allowed Unitel International Holdings BV to acquire shareholdings or set up companies in the telecommunications sector in Portugal, Cabo Verde (Unitel T+) and São Tomé and Príncipe (Unitel STP, SARL)”.

In relation to the basis of the preventive seizure and requirements for applicability of the asset guarantee measure, the Angolan Supreme Court noted that in the factual description above, “it is verified that the benefits of the crime calculated to date amount to US$1 billion, which corresponds to the value of the amounts that the defendants have illicitly appropriated.

As well as this amount, damages of US$1,136,996,825.65 were calculated in other criminal proceedings, the order said.

The Angolan Supreme Court also determined that the boards of directors of the companies seized, with the exception of Embalvidro – Indústria, should be nominated as bona-fide depositary of the shares of the seized companies.

The Instituto de Gestão de Ativos e Participações do Estado (IGAPE – State Assets and Equity Management Institute) is appointed as trustee of the Embalvidro company, the judge and advisor to the TS, Daniel Modesto Geraldes, also ruled.

This was the second seizure of Isabel dos Santos’ assets after the one decreed by the public prosecutor in 2019.

Source: Lusa