Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos hit with US sanctions for 'significant corruption'

Isabel dos Santos, once Africa’s richest woman and the daughter of Angola’s former President, has been placed under visa restriction by the United States because of her “involvement in significant corruption”. According to BBC, the US State Department on Thursday said that Dos Santos was subjected to restrictions because she used her position to engage in corruption by “misappropriating public funds for her personal benefit”. Now, the visa restrictions issued by the US will bar Dos Santos and her immediate family members from entering America. 

According to the media outlet, Dos Santos was chair of the state oil company while her father José Eduardo dos Santos was the president of Angola. In 2013, Forbes had declared the 48-year-old the richest woman in Africa, with an estimated net worth of $3.5 billion. However, in 2020, she was dropped from the list, with Forbes estimating that $1.6 billion assets are frozen in Angola and Portugal. 

On Thursday, Dos Santos was targeted alongside other individuals across Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe as the US scaled up its efforts to target graft across the globe, including visa bans and financial sanctions. Among others who were sanctioned by the United States were two Angolan power-brokers who were close to the former president. As per the report, they were designated under so-called Global Magnitsky sanctions, which are used to target foreign officials implicated in alleged corruption or human rights abuses.

Who is Isabel dos Santos?

Meanwhile, coming back to Isabel dos Santos, previously, it was revealed that the 48-year-old had made her fortune through allegedly exploiting her own nation and corruption. BBC reported on leaked documents when said that Dos Santos got access to lucrative deals involving land, oil, diamonds and telecoms when her father was the president. The documents even showed how she and her husband were allowed to buy valuable state assets in a series of suspicious deals. 

According to AP, Dos Santos heads a vast business empire, controlling companies in Angola and Portugal. She is fluent in Portuguese and English and describes herself as an “engineer, entrepreneur, investor and a public figure”. Dos Santos earlier had even said that she succeeded in amassing such wealth because of her education and her business acumen, and not because of her father’s connection. 

(Image: AP)