Portugal’s market watchdog confirmed on Thursday that it has launched inquiries into various companies where Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos holds stakes, reported Reuters.
Gabriela Figueiredo, the head of the country’s market regulator CMVM, said it launched inquiries earlier into two companies, oil company Galp Energia and telecoms firm NOS, as well as into unspecified auditing firms.
The move comes after Angola’s chief prosecutor said Santos could face an international arrest warrant if she fails to cooperate in a fraud investigation.
The Angola government has named dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman and the daughter of former President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, as a suspect over alleged mismanagement and misappropriation of funds during her tenure as the chairwoman of state oil company Sonangol.
She was controversially appointed head of Sonangol in June 2016 by her father, the then-president of Angola, and was sacked from the post by her father’s successor, President João Lourenço, in 2017.
Angolan prosecutors are seeking to recover $1bn (£760m) that Ms. Dos Santos and her associates owe the state. Her assets in Angola have been frozen. Several people linked to dos Santos including Nuno Ribeiro da Cunha, director of private banking at small Portuguese lender Eurobic and manager of Sonangol’s account at the bank, were also named as formal suspects.
Angola’s chief prosecutor Helder Pitta Gros said that his office sought dos Santos and other suspects to voluntarily come to face justice. He said his office would resort to legal instruments at its disposal, one being an international warrant if the suspects continue to refuse cooperation.
The 46-year-old has repeatedly denied the corruption allegations against her revealed by leaked documents. She holds significant stakes in several important firms in Portugal.
Notably, one of the suspects, Nuno Ribeiro da Cunha, the director of private banking at Lisbon-based lender EuroBic, was found dead at his home in Portugal on Wednesday. Cunha managed the account of oil firm Sonangol, formerly chaired by Ms. Dos Santos.
