On 23 July 2021, it was determined that Isabel dos Santos, daughter of the former president of Angola, must return her illegally gained shares. Kid Schwarz, Professor of Corporate Law, and Filip De Ly, Professor of Private International Law and Comparative Law at Erasmus School of Law, are both members of the international arbitration tribunal of the Dutch Arbitration Institute, which has determined this ruling.
The Financieele Dagblad reports that the arbitration tribunal has ruled that Isabel dos Santos, the wealthiest woman in Africa, has enriched herself with money stolen from the Angolan people.
Corrupt transactions
Dos Santos has to return the illegally obtained shares with a value of 422 million euros to the Angolan state oil company Sonangol. The shares have been obtained unlawfully and corruptly through a Dutch letterbox company called Exem. Despite the fact that Dos Santos' figurative fingerprints are on all important documents, she has always denied this.
Not only is her signature on all important documents, but the transactions were also subject to special conditions. For example, the conditions were not made from an economic perspective, and the price was not in line with the market prices at the time. The low costs of 15% of the sale price were paid by a Dos Santos company based in the Virgin Islands. Instead of paying back the remaining purchase amount in euros, which was the deal, Dos Santos paid in Kwanzas, a currency that has no value outside Angola.
Political games
The international arbitration tribunal believes it is evident that Dos Santos was in complete control of the transaction. “There can be no doubt that the entire transaction by which Dos Santos acquired the indirect stake in Galp through Exem Energy is 'null and void'”, as stated in the arbitration judgement. The ruling is absolute, which means that the state oil company has always retained ownership of the shares. Exem's lawyer indicates that the ruling will be challenged because it would be politically motivated. The lawyer of the state oil company states that this is complete nonsense. The arbitral tribunal has ruled that Isabel dos Santos enriched herself with money stolen from the Angolan people. There's nothing political about that, he says.
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Read the full article here (in Dutch).