African Arguments

Top Menu

  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Climate
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • Think African [Podcast]
    • #EndSARS
    • Into Africa [Podcast]
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Africa Science Focus [Podcast]
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Debating Ideas
  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

logo

African Arguments

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Climate
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • Think African [Podcast]
    • #EndSARS
    • Into Africa [Podcast]
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Africa Science Focus [Podcast]
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Debating Ideas
Africa InsidersAngola
Home›African Arguments›Africa Insiders›Africa Insiders: #LuandaLeaks over Isabel Dos Santos

Africa Insiders: #LuandaLeaks over Isabel Dos Santos

By Africa Insiders
January 23, 2020
2777
0
img-1
img-2

Isabel dos Santos. Credit: Nuno Coimbra CC-BY-SA

The essentials: A massive leak of 715,000 documents to the Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa led to a massive investigative journalism effort coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists into the provenance of the wealth of Isabel dos Santos, billionaire daughter of former Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos, and her husband, the Congolese art collector and businessman Sindika Dokolo. The investigation details two decades worth of business deals, more than 400 companies in 41 countries linked to the couple, including 94 in tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions, as well as the complicity of global consulting companies in allowing Isabel dos Santos build an empire on ill-gotten gains and insider dealings.

The context: Isabel dos Santos is Africa’s richest woman at an estimated net worth of $2.1 billion. She has a stake in or controls dozens of businesses that employ thousands in Angola and Portugal. She is probably the most economically powerful private sector actor in Angola.

While dos Santos always claimed that hers is a self-made success story, allegations that her business empire is built on nepotism and corruption have surrounded her for years. The #LuandaLeaks investigation now backs up most of these claims. Based on business records, private emails and contracts, the documents detail decades worth of deals both illegal and immoral, ranging from contracts and tenders awarded to Isabel’s companies by her father during his 35 years as president of Angola to blatant self-dealing during her time at the helm of Sonangol, Angola’s state-owned oil giant.

An interesting aspect to the #LuandaLeaks is the level of detail they reveal regarding dos Santos’ support network. From her husband to personal lawyers and financial advisers and international consulting agencies like PwC and the Boston Consulting Group, she relied on a considerable number of actors to enable her to pilfer Angola of its wealth.

The good: This is maybe the most detailed and thorough look at the inner workings of one of the worst kleptocracies on the continent. It demonstrates both the mundane tactics and mechanics of white-collar crime and the damage it does to a society. It thoroughly shatters the image of the do-good self-made success story that Isabel dos Santos tried to create and also puts the spotlight on the international profiteers of corruption.

The bad: While certainly the uncrowned queen of nepotism in Angola, there is no doubt that Isabel dos Santos is only the tip of the iceberg of corruption in the oil-rich country. Angola’s current regime has been quick in using the revelations to bolster its legal case against the dos Santos family. But until now, it has not committed to investigate other corrupt practices, including by those still in power, with the same zeal.

The future: Further investigation and legal action will hopefully lead to the repatriation of at least some of the ill-gotten gains, as well as severe legal consequences for all those involved. Beyond the specific case of Isabel dos Santos, the #LuandaLeaks revelations will also hopefully increase the pressure on the international financial system to build up barriers to this kind of theft. A somewhat positive aspect of the story has been the increasing difficulty that dos Santos faced in moving her assets through international banks, leading her to rely more and more on banking institutions she controlled herself. That should show campaigners and activists the kind of actors to target with proposals for new regulations and transparency.

  • If you read only one other story, make it the ICIJ’s detailed report.
  • The ICIJ also offers the original documents of the leak, as well as other, detailed stories on aspects of the investigation.
  • The Guardian was one of the media organisations that contributed to the investigation. It has collected all its stories here. The ICIJ has a list of all organisations that contributed reporting.
  • Africa is a country takes aim at the international enablers of dos Santos.

Written by Peter Dörrie


Pay what you want for the FULL Africa Insiders Newsletter!

We hope you enjoyed this Free Edition of the Africa Insiders, but is only a taste of the full experience. This week, the Full Edition also covered:

  • Continental Health Corner: Climate change is already killing people across Africa. It will only get worse. 
  • Links of the week: Everything Africa-related, that is worth your time and attention

To upgrade, email [email protected], telling us the price you’d like to pay.

Yes, you decide the price as long as it’s at least $2 per month to cover the transaction costs.

If you are unsure what to pay, we recommend $10, but it’s up to you and we won’t judge. If you give more ($15/month, $50/month, $100/month!), your extra donation above $10 will go into a special fund for AfricanArguments.org to commission in-depth articles by African writers and journalists that will be free to read for everyone.

Again, just email [email protected] and let us know any amount of $2 or more and you’ll get the Full Africa Insiders Newsletter for the price that feels right to YOU!


The Africa Insiders’ Newsletter is a collaboration between AfricanArguments.org and @PeterDoerrie, with contributions from @_andrew_green and @Shollytupe and assistance from Stella Nantongo. Part of the subscription revenue is funding in-depth and freely accessible reporting and analysis on African Arguments.

Previous Article

UK-Africa: Private sector investment can be good, ...

Next Article

Sierra Leone’s ban of pregnant school girls ...

mm

Africa Insiders

The Africa Insiders Newsletter is a weekly newsletter brought to you by African Arguments. Written by leading journalists and analysts, it it made up of snappy, insightful updates on the major developments that have hit the week's headlines, and those that should've.

Leave a reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • img-4
    Age of Agitation SeriesDebating IdeasSudan

    Guardians of the Barricades: Fading Dream and Confusion of Resistance in Sudan

  • An empty lecture theatre in the University of Cape Town. Credit: Ian Barbour.
    Society

    The shocking absence of Global South scholars in international journals

  • In Nigeria, hundreds have died in clashes between herders and farmers this year. Credit: DfID/Lindsay Mgbor.
    NigeriaSociety

    Nigeria: Buhari under fire as deadly herder-farmer clashes continue

Subscribe to our newsletter

Click here to subscribe to our free weekly newsletter and never miss a thing!

  • 81.7K+
    Followers

Find us on Facebook

Interactive Elections Map

Keep up to date with all the African elections.

Recent Posts

  • Djibouti fiddles amid the scramble for the Red Sea
  • Why France EACOP case might embolden, not discourage, activists
  • The International Community Must Reconsider its Engagement with Somaliland
  • Unpacking the geopolitics of Uganda’s anti-gay bill
  • Why’s the AfDB siding with the Agrochemical Industrial Complex?

Editor’s Picks

Editor's PicksPoliticsSenegal

“People will become more radical”: Senegal and the limits of protest

Senegal has a rich history of social movements, but they have done more to resolve political conflicts than open up new horizons…at least up to now. Senegal’s radical movements have ...
  • The violent eviction of the Maasai community in Tanzania to create a game reserve recently drew widespread shock and condemnation. Credit: Dylan Conway.

    Fortress conservation is heading for a crisis that can’t come soon enough

    By Simon Counsell
    July 28, 2022
  • Earlier this month, think tanks from around Africa discussed challenges at the Africa Think Tank conference, organised by the OCP Policy Center and Think Tank and Civil Societies Program of the University of Pennsylvania. Credit: OCP.

    “Do we really need them?” Four big challenges facing African think tanks

    By James Wan
    May 29, 2018
  • A man holds an image one of the individuals who disappeared and is still missing at a rally in Uganda. Credit: NUP.

    “Give us back our people”: the Ugandans who disappeared

    By Liam Taylor & Derrick Wandera
    October 12, 2022
  • In Madagascar, extreme weather has contributed to myriad crises such as famine. Credit: Rod Waddington.

    The forgotten, cascading crisis in Madagascar

    By Manoa Faliarivola, Marc Lanteigne & Velomahanina Razakamaharavo
    January 18, 2022

Brought to you by

img-12

Creative Commons

Creative Commons Licence
Articles on African Arguments are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
  • Cookies
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
© Copyright African Arguments 2020
By continuing to browse this site, you agree to our use of cookies.