Beautiful Virgin Islands

Tuesday, Jun 24, 2025

Leaks Show Large Firms Aided Dos Santos’ Offshore Empire

Leaks Show Large Firms Aided Dos Santos’ Offshore Empire

A trove of 715,000 leaked emails, charts, contracts, and audits details how the daughter of the former Angolese president Isabel dos Santos, reportedly Africa’s richest woman, managed to amass and shield her US$2 billion fortune with the help of western consulting and accounting firms.
Boston Consulting Group, Price Waterhouse Cooper, PwC, McKinsey & Company, and Accenture provided financial services to dos Santos and her husband, Sindika Dokolo, a high-profile Congolese businessman and art collector, that allowed them to safeguard their fortune abroad.

Dos Santos has shares in multiple Angolan state banks and companies such as the telecommunication company Unitel. The couple has built an empire of over 400 companies and subsidiaries, operating in over 94 financial secrecy jurisdictions such as Malta, Mauritius and Hong Kong.

Critics say that Dos Santos and her husband have been syphoning mostly natural resources of one of the world’s poorest countries where two-thirds of the country’s population survives on less than $2, while the government now says that dos Santos and her husband owe the state over $1 billion.

Documents reveal that PwC was perhaps the worst perpetrator in assisting the couple with their offshore companies. They found that firms such as PwC continued to provide services despite the fact that other banks had rejected them and regulators had flagged customers matching this profile.

“It’s not exactly our finest hour,'' Bob Moritz, Chairman of the PwC Network said at the Davos Summit following the release of the Luanda Leaks.

He assured summit participants that the company had already severed ties with dos Santos and that it would work “with speed” to make sure that incidents like these would not occur in the future.

The files, dubbed the ‘Luanda Leaks’, were acquired by the anti-corruption charity Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa, PPLAAF, which then shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, ICIJ, a high profile organization perhaps most well-known for its publication of the Panama Papers, which went on to release the documents publicly on Sunday.

Over 120 journalists from 37 media outlets that include the New York Times, the Guardian, the BBC, French newspaper Le Monde, and Portuguese newspaper Expresso, collaborated to review the documents disseminated in the leak, which spans between 1980 and 2018.

The leaks coincide with a recent Transparency International analysis that show over 400 cases in which hundreds of professional advisors and accountants have provided services to financial criminals that have amounted to a total of $412 billion in the UK alone.

“Without the assistance of these people, these corruption schemes and the money laundering that flows from that would be unable to happen.” Ben Cowduck, of the UK chapter of Transparency International, told ICIJ.
“It’s a fabulous set of revelations which I’m absolutely delighted by” said Nicholas Shaxon, who has written extensively on the offshore industry, in an interview for France 24.

On one hand there is the traditional story of corruption in Africa, “which, of course, we hate,” but on the other we have the less familiar story of how the money is taken from the west by large financial firms who are “helping capital flight, helping the draining and the looting of Africa.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
“You Have 12 Hours to Flee”: Israeli Threat Campaign Targets Surviving Iranian Officials
Macron and Merz: Europe must arm itself in an unstable world
Germany and Italy Under Pressure to Repatriate $245bn of Gold from US Vaults
Airlines Evaluate Flight Cancellations Amid Escalating US-Iran Tensions
Starmer Invites Innovators to Join Government Talent Scheme
UK Economy’s Strong Opening Quarter Shows Signs of Cooling
Harrods Seeks Court Order to Secure Al Fayed Estate for Victims
BA and Singapore Airlines Cancel Dubai Flights Amid Middle East Tensions
Trump Faces Backlash from MAGA Base Over Iran Strikes
Meta Bets $14 B on Alexandr Wang to Drive AI Ambitions
WATCH: Israeli forces show the aftermath of a massive airstrike at Iran's Isfahan nuclear site
FedEx Founder Fred Smith, ‘Heart and Soul’ of the Company, Dies at 80
Chinese Factories Shift Away from U.S. Amid Trump‑Era Tariffs
Pimco Seizes Opportunity in Japan’s Dislocated Bond Market
Labubu Doll Drives Pop Mart to Status as China’s Most Valuable Toy Maker
Global Coal Demand Defies Paris Accord Goals
We have new information and breaking details to share about what is shaping up to be a historic air campaign tonight
Six Massive Bombs Dropped on Fordow; Trump: 'A Historic Moment for the U.S., Israel, and the World'
Fordow: Deeply Buried Iranian Enrichment Site in U.S.–Israel Crosshairs
United States Conducts Precision Strikes on Iran’s Nuclear Sites
US strikes Iran nuclear sites, Trump says
Pakistan to nominate Trump for Nobel Peace Prize.
BBC Demands Perplexity AI Immediately Stop Using Its Content
Telegram Founder: I Will Leave My Fortune to Over 100 of My Children
Political Turmoil Resurfaces in Belgium Amid Economic Concerns
Fed policymakers divided on timing of interest rate cuts
Trump signals imminent agreement with Harvard University
Inheritance tax referendum alarms Swiss billionaire community
Japan cancels bilateral security meeting amid US defence demands
AI skeptic Emily Bender warns that ‘the emperor has no clothes’
Israel Confirms Assassination of Quds Force Commander in Tehran
16 Billion Login Credentials Leaked in Unprecedented Cybersecurity Breach
Senate hearing on who was 'really running' Biden White House kicks off
Iranian Military Officers Reportedly Seek Contact with Reza Pahlavi, Signal Intent to Defect
FBI and Senate Investigate Allegations of Chinese Plot to Influence the 2020 Election in Biden’s Favor Using Fake U.S. Driver’s Licenses
Vietnam Emerges as Luxury Yacht Destination for Ultra‑Rich
Plans to Sell Dutch Embassy in Bangkok Face Local Opposition
China's Iranian Oil Imports Face Disruption Amid Escalating Middle East Tensions
Trump's $5 Million 'Trump Card' Visa Program Draws Nearly 70,000 Applicants
DGCA Finds No Major Safety Concerns in Air India's Boeing 787 Fleet
Airlines Reroute Flights Amid Expanding Middle East Conflict Zones
Elon Musk's xAI Seeks $9.3 Billion in Funding Amid AI Expansion
Trump Demands Iran's Unconditional Surrender Amid Escalating Conflict
Israeli Airstrike Targets Iranian State TV in Central Tehran
President Trump is leaving the G7 summit early and has ordered the National Security Council to the Situation Room
Taiwan Imposes Export Ban on Chips to Huawei and SMIC
Israel has just announced plans to strike Tehran again, and in response, Trump has urged people to evacuate
Netanyahu Signals Potential Regime Change in Iran
Juncker Criticizes EU Inaction on Trump Tariffs
EU Proposes Ban on New Russian Gas Contracts
×