Why Africa's First Female Billionaire & Once Richest Woman Is Facing A $400 Million Lawsuit In London

Africa¡¯s first female billionaire Isabel dos Santos, who was once the nation¡¯s richest woman too, is now facing a $400 million lawsuit.

$400 Million Lawsuit Against Africa's First Female Billionaire

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The daughter of the country's former president has been added to a $400 million lawsuit brought by Angolan telecoms operator Unitel against a company she owns, London's High Court ruled two weeks ago.

Unitel sued Africa¡¯s first female billionaire's Dutch company Unitel International Holdings (UIH) in 2020 over loans that were provided in 2012 and 2013, when dos Santos was a director of Unitel, to fund UIH's acquisition of shares in telecoms companies, as per Reuters.

The loans were not repaid and around $395 million plus interest remains outstanding, Unitel's lawyers said, as per the Reuters report. The two companies are not related despite having the same name and dos Santos, who owns UIH, resigned as a director of Unitel in 2020.

Unitel had applied to personally add dos Santos ¨C Africa's first female billionaire, whose father Jose Eduardo dos Santos ruled the country of Angola for 38 years until 2017 ¨C to its case against UIH.

Judge Mark Pelling ruled that dos Santos should be added to the existing lawsuit. He said Unitel has a "realistic prospect of success" in relation to its allegations that dos Santos breached her duties as a director of Unitel.

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Africa's Once Richest Woman Denies Allegations

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Dos Santos "vehemently denies that she has breached any of her director's duties", her lawyer Richard Hill said in court filings. Her lawyers also argue that Unitel is responsible for UIH's inability to pay, because of its alleged role in the "unlawful seizure by the Angolan state of UIH's assets". Unitel denies any involvement in the asset seizure.

Dos Santos has faced corruption accusations for years, including allegations by Angola that she and her husband steered $1 billion in state funds to companies in which they held stakes during her father's presidency, including oil giant Sonangol.

Around $1 billion of her assets in Angola were seized last year, while other assets linked to her have been seized in Portugal. Dos Santos, who says she lives in Dubai, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and her lawyers have described the allegations against her as part of a "political conspiracy".

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From Richest To Rags- How She Lost It All

Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of Angola¡¯s longtime former president, had accumulated riches through embezzlement and money laundering, an Angolan court claims.

To recover what was looted, her assets were frozen by courts in three different nations and a lawsuit claiming hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid debt looms over her, as per Forbes. In 2013, she was declared the richest woman in Africa, worth an estimated $3.5 billion. And in 2021, she was dropped from the Forbes list of Africa¡¯s richest people.

Isabel dos Santos is the eldest daughter of former Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled the country from 1979 to 2017. While he ran the poverty-stricken but oil-rich country, she garnered significant stakes in Angola¡¯s strategic industries¡ªbanking, cement, diamonds and telecom¡ªmaking her the most influential businessperson in her homeland. More than half of her assets were stakes in Portuguese companies, adding international credibility. When Forbes announced her as a billionaire in January 2013, the government disseminated the news as a matter of national pride.

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Every major Angolan investment held by Dos Santos stemmed either from taking a chunk of a company that wanted to do business in the country or from a stroke of the president's pen that cut her into the action.

Dos Santos¡¯ empire began to crumble under the leadership of Angola¡¯s new president, Jo?o Louren?o, who took office in September 2017 after Dos Santos¡¯ father retired. Louren?o vowed to attack the corruption for which Angola had become well-known. (Transparency International ranked the country as one of the most corrupt in the world.) As per Forbes report, two months into his tenure he dismissed Dos Santos as the head of the state oil firm Sonangol, a position to which her father¡¯s government had named her in June 2016.

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