Isabel dos Santos, daughter of Angola's former president and Africa's one-time richest woman, must return to Angola her shares in Portugal's Galp energy firm worth 422 million euros ($500 million), an international arbitration court has ruled. The transaction under which Dos Santos acquired her stake in the oil and gas company Galp is "null and void", according to the Netherlands Arbitration Institute (NAI), which is part of the International Court of Arbitration. The 2006 purchase of the shares, acquired through a company owned by dos Santos' late husband Exem Energy, was illegal.
Dos Santos is accused of diverting billions of dollars from state companies during her father Jose Eduardo dos Santos's nearly 40-year rule of the oil-rich southern African nation. The arbitration court has judged that Isabel dos Santos enriched herself with money stolen from Angolan people. The billionaire businesswoman has faced several allegations of plundering the public purse and funnelling the money abroad. Nicknamed "the princess" in Angola, she was accused of amassing her vast fortune thanks to the backing of her authoritarian father.
Isabel dos Santos ordered to return $500 million in energy shares to Angola (france24.com)
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