In an interview with MFM radio, the businesswoman and daughter of former president José Eduardo dos Santos, said she "annoyed" many people by cancelling contracts that hurt the state oil company, including insurance, whose costs she said were much higher than market values, estimating to have saved 70 percent by choosing another company.
However, the decision to transitionally transfer the co-insurance of AAA Seguros' oil activities to the state-owned company ENSA Seguros was taken on March 30, 2016, while Isabel dos Santos did not take office as chairman of Sonangol until June 6 of that year.
It was through Presidential Order 39/16, published in Diário da República on March 30, that the then President José Eduardo dos Santos, father of Isabel dos Santos, transitionally appointed ENSA as the new leader of the special co-insurance regime for oil activities, thus replacing AAA, which until then had played that role.
The personal and property insurance of oil companies, such as accidents at work, became subject to free competition, putting an end to the obligation to take out insurance with Carlos de São Vicente's insurer.
The presidential order justified the decision with the "strategic interest" of the oil activity for Angola, being indispensable the insurance coverage and reinsurance to cover the inherent risks, being important to safeguard the national interest "guaranteeing the best contractual terms and conditions".
The decree also stipulated that the Minister of Finance should present an in-depth study on the new model of co-insurance and re-insurance for oil activities in Angola within six months.
Before being appointed to chair Sonangol, Isabel dos Santos was part of a commission created by the government to restructure Sonangol which included several international consultants.
The businesswoman, who is on the receiving end of justice and was charged with alleged mismanagement and embezzlement during her time at Sonangol, led the oil company between June 2016 and November 2017.
She was exonerated by João Lourenço, who succeeded José Eduardo dos Santos as president of the country and was replaced in the post by Carlos Saturnino, a manager she had removed when she took over the leadership of Sonangol.
Carlos Saturnino then decided to order an audit of his predecessor's management, following which an investigation was opened by the Angolan authorities in March 2018.
The matter was allegedly irregular money transfers decreed by the previous administration.
"We took office on November 16, 2017 and that day, in the evening, we realized that the administrator who was in charge of finances in Sonangol, although he had been exonerated on the 15th, ordered a transfer of 38 million dollars to Matter Business Solutions, based in Dubai," denounced Carlos Saturnino at the time.
This transfer would have been made through BIC bank "which became one of Sonangol's preferred banks," he said.
Information gathered by the international consortium of journalists that denounced the case that became known as 'Luanda Leaks' confirmed that Matter Business Solutions had as its only declared shareholder the Portuguese Paula Oliveira, friend of Isabel dos Santos and administrator of NOS.
The Dubai company also had the support of the personal lawyer of the businesswoman, the Portuguese Jorge Brito Pereira (partner of Uría Menéndez, the office of Proença de Carvalho), and the chairman of the board of Efacec, Mário Leite da Silva, Portuguese manager close to the daughter of José Eduardo dos Santos.
Over the course of several months, Isabel dos Santos will have set up a concealment scheme that allowed her to divert more than 100 million dollars from Sonangol to Dubai through Mater Business Solutions.
