Friday, July 10, 2020

Kleptocrats: Portugal To Take Then Sell Stake In Efacec Firm Of Angola’s Dos Santos

You may have seen this bit, a December 2019 Reuters story:
Angola retrieves more than $5 bln in stolen assets amid crackdown on graft
That's one country.
And those are just the recoveries.
Here's more. From Reuters July 2:
Portugal will nationalise and then sell the majority stake in engineering firm Efacec Power Solutions that had been controlled by Angolan businesswoman and ex-first daughter Isabel dos Santos, the government said on Thursday.

Dos Santos, the daughter of former Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, is a suspect in a fraud investigation in her homeland and withdrew from Efacec’s shareholding structure in January, according to the company.

The nationalisation of 71.7% of the firm is a transitionary move, said a decree published on President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s website, and shares will immediately go on the market.

“The cabinet took this decision because Efacec is in a situation of impasse after the ‘Luanda Leaks’,” Economy Minister Pedro Siza Vieira told reporters after a cabinet meeting, referring to documents alleging corruption in Angola....
....MUCH MORE

A few years ago Forbes estimated her net worth at two billion USD. 
Some other Angola stories:
"Angola offers help to struggling Portugal" (and good luck to Italy)
I'm getting the impression that Portugal must have been a half-decent colonial overlord.
Last year we had:
Line of Demarcation*: Portugal Reportedly Prefers Loans from Brazil over IMF, EU
about Brazil offering to buy some of Portugal's debt.

Today it's Angola. 
Angola Apparently Has A $50 Billion 'Discrepency' At Their National Oil Company
I don't care who you are, that's getting to be some real money.

And a bit further up the kids O'Kleptos leaderboard is Maria Gabriela Chavez, last seen in "'A Communist Doesn’t Whine — He Shows His Teeth' Communists In Weimar Germany"
One of the rules of politics is "if your country goes communist you want to be as far up the apparatchik totem pole as you can get."
Preferably a commissar or above, putting you and yours closer to the commissary.

In a socialist paradise all pigs are equal but Hugo Chavez's daughter is a billionaire. 
(actually $4.2 billion)