By John Ikani
Isabel dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman and the daughter of Angola’s former President, has been placed under visa restrictions by the US, as part of global anti-corruption measures unveiled by the State Department on Thursday.
Dos Santos was subjected to restrictions “for her involvement in significant corruption by misappropriating public funds for her personal benefit,” Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, said in a statement.
Blinken’s statement did not go into details about what Ms Dos Santos is accused of having done.
Under visa restrictions, the US can deny entry to foreign officials whom it suspects are involved in significant corruption. Dos Santos has not been subjected to financial sanctions.
Visa restrictions issued by the State department will bar Ms Dos Santos and her immediate family members from entering the US.
She has not been subject to any financial sanctions.
Dos Santos chaired the state oil company in Africa’s second-biggest crude-producing country under her father, José Eduardo dos Santos, until he left power in 2017, and once had sprawling business interests across its economy.
But these interests crumbled and dos Santos left the country after João Lourenço became President and launched an anti-graft campaign in the governing MPLA.
Dos Santos was targeted alongside other individuals across Africa, Latin America and eastern Europe on Thursday, International Anti-Corruption Day, as the US scales up measures to target graft around the world, including visa bans and financial sanctions.
They also coincided with a two-day virtual Democracy Summit hosted by the White House, which includes leaders from more than 100 countries across the world.
Among the others sanctioned by the US on Thursday, were two Angolan power-brokers who were close to the former President. They were designated under so-called Global Magnitsky sanctions — used to target foreign officials implicated in alleged corruption or human-rights abuses — that will prevent US entities from dealing with them.
Leopoldo Fragoso do Nascimento and Manuel Helder Vieira Dias, known as Dino and Kopelipa respectively, were sanctioned for alleged corruption. They also once had powerful business interests in Angola but fell from grace in recent years under Lourenço’s presidency.
In 2013, Forbes declared Ms Dos Santos the richest woman in Africa, with an estimated net worth of $3.5bn (£2.6bn). She was dropped from the list in 2020, with Forbes estimating that $1.6bn in assets are frozen in Angola and Portugal.
Ms Dos Santos was still believed to be worth over $2bn in January 2020. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has linked her to luxury apartments owned in both London and Lisbon, as well as a $35m yacht purchased through a shell company.
