Angolan millionaire Isabel Dos Santos, investigated for corruption, leaves the telephone company Unitel

Isabel Dos Santos, baptized at the time by Forbes magazine as the richest woman in Africa, has taken a step back in the middle of the corruption investigations in which she is involved and that put her fortune in check. With her business empire under the scrutiny of justice for alleged corruption and embezzlement, and her assets frozen, the Angolan billionaire, who made her fortune while her father, Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, was president (1979-2017), has announced that she is leaving Unitel's board of directors. It is the most important mobile phone company in the country, of which she is a co-founder and thanks to which she started a fruitful entrepreneurial journey.

"After 20 years dedicated to the creation, development and success of Unitel, I have chosen to retire from my position on the board of directors of the company", Dos Santos has communicated in writing, who has indicated as the reason for this step that he thinks " counterproductive and irresponsible to allow a climate of permanent conflict ”and“ politicization ”in the company. Dos Santos has not specified what will happen to his shares in the company. She owns 25%, although these shares have been frozen since December 2019 - when the investigation began - along with her other assets and bank accounts.

The tranquility of Isabel Dos Santos began to break at the end of 2017, when her father retired from the Angolan presidency after 38 years in power. José Eduardo Dos Santos (who settled in Barcelona in 2018) tried to put her future on track, placing it in charge of the oil company Sonagol (the state oil company, of which she has 50%). But the new government stopped it shortly after. This movement was seen as a sign that the winds were beginning to change for the Dos Santos clan. The former president is blamed for having favored a small elite formed basically by her family - especially her favorite daughter, Isabel - and those known as "generals."

Luanda leaks

In December 2019, the real problems began for the queen of Africa . Under investigation and after the court order to freeze their assets, in January 2020 the Luanda Leaks scandal (investigation of a consortium of journalists) came to light , more than 700,000 documents, including contracts, letters and emails, which reveal the alleged laundering, embezzlement, illegal transfers and all kinds of opaque operations of the empire of Isabel Dos Santos. Two weeks later, she was formally charged by the Angolan attorney general with money laundering, influence peddling and other economic crimes. It is estimated that she would have allegedly diverted a million dollars (about 850,000 euros) of public funds. Isabel Dos Santos has denied all the accusations, and blames the country's new authorities for wanting to destroy her.

Unitel, which now has 11 million clients, is Dos Santos's seed of fortune. Co-founded by the president's daughter in 1998, Telefónica won a public tender and since then, Isabel's entrepreneurial hand has extended to all sectors: construction, banking, diamonds, a supermarket chain, and even a brewery. For almost two decades, Isabel Dos Santos used her influence and position in various companies to access, along with her husband, the Congolese businessman and art collector, Sindika Dokolo, allegedly millions of dollars of public money through state-owned companies. The couple now live in Portugal, where they have millionaire investments, and have not set foot in Angola since the beginning of the investigations.

• The shadow of corruption dethrons the 'queen' of Africa
• Portugal seizes the bank accounts of Isabel Dos Santos