Defying Interpol warrant, Isabel dos Santos enjoys luxurious life in Dubai

Regardless of request despatched to governments all over the world by Interpol asking to search out and provisionally arrest Israel dos Santos – Angolan former billionaire, she resides a free life and having fun with lavish way of life in Dubai. She even is common on social media. A current investigation by a number of organizations together with the Worldwide Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has discovered paperwork connecting Isabel dos Santos and her mom to a number of properties on the waterfront of the United Arab Emirate’s monetary hub.

It could be talked about right here that, Isabel dos Santos, eldest daughter of Angola’s former president got here below intense scrutiny by authorities following publication of Luanda Leaks. She was thought of as Africa’s richest lady.

Whereas since 2019, courts in Angola, Portugal and different international locations have issued orders to freeze her belongings, dos Santos enjoys a free life in Dubai as finds it as secure haven.

Newly leaked Dubai property information reviewed by ICIJ reveal that dos Santos and her mom, Tatiana “Kukanova” Regan, co-own a two-bedroom house in a constructing known as Sadaf, Arabic for “seashell0,” overlooking Dubai Marina on one facet and the Persian Gulf on the opposite. The Thirty first-floor house was bought in 2009 for almost US$163,000, and similar-sized models go for greater than $570,000 at this time. Regan owns one other unit in the identical constructing, which she purchased in 2017 for almost US$735,000. She has been leasing it as a rental property ever since, in response to transaction information from Dubai.

Data linking homeowners to their properties had been obtained by the Washington, DC, nonprofit Heart for Superior Protection Research (C4ADS) and shared with ICIJ and greater than 70 media retailers as a part of the Dubai Unlocked investigation coordinated by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Venture (OCCRP) and Norwegian monetary outlet E24.

The information reveal dozens of alleged criminals and political figures personal or just lately owned actual property in Dubai. Whereas it’s authorized for politicians to purchase property in Dubai, it could possibly elevate purple flags if, for instance, the price is considerably better than their earnings or they did not record the property of their declaration of belongings.

The revelations come on the heels of the UAE’s elimination from the intergovernmental Monetary Motion Process Power “grey record” for facilitating cash laundering and terrorist financing.

In response to questions despatched in April, dos Santos mentioned she acquired the Sadaf house for “private use” utilizing cash she earned from her personal corporations and public appearances. She added that she has utilized to problem Interpol’s request for governments to provisionally arrest her, referred to as a purple discover, as a result of “it was issued with false data” by Angolan authorities.

“President Lourenco / Angolan authorities have a political motivated agenda in opposition to me and the Dos Santos household”, she wrote in an e-mail. “They fabricate false proof and don’t permit the courts to be neutral and impartial”.

Dos Santos’ mom, Regan, is the primary spouse of Angola’s former president José Eduardo dos Santos. Regan was born in Russia and is a citizen of the UK.

Regan labored at Angola’s state oil firm Sonangol within the Nineteen Seventies earlier than divorcing her husband and shifting together with her daughter to London. The pair later managed a Gibraltar firm that had a 24.5 p.c stake in Angola’s diamond monopoly Ascorp, in response to UK courtroom paperwork.

The Dubai land information additionally comprise details about Konema Mwenenge, a enterprise accomplice of dos Santos’ late husband, Sindika Dokolo, and firms he’s related to.

Mwenenge, the French govt of a Dubai-based diamond dealing agency, owned two side-by-side flats in a luxurious advanced in Jumeirah Bay referred to as the Bulgari Resort and Residences. Dubai’s public Land Division web site reveals a type of flats now belongs to Equinox Holdings Ltd. In 2015, Mwenenge used the Dubai-based Equinox to mortgage greater than US$14 million to De Grisogono, dos Santos’ now-bankrupt jewellery firm in Switzerland, in response to Luanda Leaks paperwork.

Based on the Dubai Land Division, the common hire for the unit ought to be between US$294,000 and US$359,000 per 12 months, however rental data obtained by the collaboration reveals that Equinox rents the house to dos Santos for about US$40,800, or US$3,400 a month.

Equinox additionally owns a handful of different models on the Bulgari Resort and Residences, together with one which was purchased in 2017 for simply over US$2.1 million, in response to transaction information obtained by the collaboration. In 2020, ICIJ discovered that Dokolo and dos Santos listed that house as their residential tackle on company paperwork of a Maltese shell firm they used to acquire a multimillion-dollar contract with Angola’s state oil firm.

The investigative outlet Bellingcat discovered that dos Santos has been posting pictures and movies from the constructing advanced on social media. The posts present her dancing poolside and eating at extravagant eating places regardless of authorized circumstances in opposition to her in Angola, the UK and the Netherlands.

Is Isabel dos Santos a sufferer of Angolan president?

As in her response to ICIJ, Isabel dos Santos mentioned, she has utilized to problem Interpol’s request for governments to provisionally arrest her, referred to as a purple discover, as a result of “it was issued with false data” by Angolan authorities, and he or she mentioned, “President Lourenço / Angolan authorities have a political motivated agenda in opposition to me and the Dos Santos household. They fabricate false proof and don’t permit the courts to be neutral and impartial”, as a part of moral journalism, now we have been attempting to succeed in dos Santos, presumably with the request of interviewing her giving particulars of how Angolan President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço and Angolan authorities are – out of “political agenda” are persevering with numerous ways to harass dos Santos and Dos Santos household. Till now, now we have not heard from her.