Africa’s Richest Woman Charged For Fraud

Isabel Dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman, has been formally accused of embezzlement by prosecutors in Angola.
Helder Pitta Gros, Angola’s Attorney General, said on Wednesday that the allegations related to her time as chairwoman of state oil firm Sonangol.
Several other people have also been accused alongside Dos Santos.
Gros said an international arrest warrant would be issued for all the suspects, who all live abroad, if they failed to present themselves to Angolan authorities.
“Isabel dos Santos is accused of mismanagement and embezzlement of funds during her tenure at Sonangol and is thus charged in the first instance with the crimes of money laundering, influence peddling, harmful management … forgery of documents, among other economic crimes,” Gros said at a press conference.
An investigation into Dos Santos’s 18 months as head of Sonangol from June 2016 was opened after her successor, Carlos Saturnino, alerted authorities to alleged irregular money transfers.
Documents leaked this week alleged that Dos Santos, the daughter of former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, built her $2.1 billion fortune by exploiting her country and through corruption.
She has denied the allegations.