"It was possible to freeze some assets in Angola and Portugal, but the mapping of all assets is not done and the only thing that happened was that I was prevented from benefiting from shares and investments, but did not have to return any money," he said. the director of the organization Transparency and Integrity Portugal, Karina Carvalho.
The activist was speaking during a conversation promoted by this anti-corruption organization to mark the passage of a year on the disclosure of the case by the International Investigative Journalism Consortium.
On January 19, 2020, more than 715 thousand files were released, under the name 'Luanda Leaks', detailing alleged financial schemes of businesswoman Isabel dos Santos and her husband, who has since died, which will have allowed them to withdraw money from the national public purse through tax havens.
The revelations were followed by investigations in Portugal and Angola, which are still ongoing, and the businesswoman saw part of her assets in both frozen countries.
"These asset recovery processes are very long and although they have not yet yielded substantial results in Europe, they are processes with such legal complexity that they can be prolonged 'ad-nauseum' and with that the Angolan people who suffer without to be able to benefit from the money that was stolen ", pointed out Karina Carvalho.
For Angolan anti-corruption activist Laura Macedo, the 'Luanda Leaks' case "showed the weaknesses of the Government [of Angola], but also the ease with which Europe allows itself to be promiscuous", but did little to fight corruption in the country.
"The fight against corruption does not exist. What they present to us is so false and of poor quality that we cannot consider fighting against corruption," she said.
According to Laura Macedo, following the revelations of the 'Luanda Leaks', the Angolan Attorney General's Office (PGR) "rehearsed a reaction", but took too long to act and to freeze the assets of the daughter of former President José Eduardo dos Santos .
Even in frozen companies, he continued, an increasing attempt to prevent revenues from entering the banking circuit is visible.
Using the Candando supermarket chain as an example, Laura Macedo ensured that the Government allowed the coffers to be emptied without knowing the destination of the money.
In the same vein, Maíra Martini, a researcher at Transparency International, warned of the risk that Isabel dos Santos could still "empty the companies" over which she still has control and of losing track of money.
"It is necessary to investigate what is happening with the companies from which it can still get money," she said.
According to the Angolan PGR, Isabel dos Santos is running several civil and criminal cases, in which the State claims values in excess of five billion dollars.
The businesswoman has always rejected the accusations, arguing that it is a political campaign against herself and her family.
