Angolan businesswoman Isabel dos Santos on Tuesday announced that she is to step down from the board of Unitel, the country’s largest telecommunications operator, in which she has a 25% stake through Vidatel, which she controls.
“After 20 years dedicated to the creation, development and success of Unitel, I have chosen to leave the position of member of the board of directors of the company,” the businesswoman said in a statement sent to Lusa.
In the statement, dos Santos said that her decision to step down relates to “the climate of permanent conflict” in board meetings at the company, whose main shareholder is Sonangol, Angola’s state-owned oil company.
The businesswoman, whose father, José Eduardo dos Santos, was president of Angola before the current incumbent, João Lourenço, is battling allegations of corruption, including an investigation by Angolan public prosecutors into financial transactions made on her behalf, including in Portugal, while she was president of Sonangol. The transactions came to light when the ‘Luanda Leaks’, a huge cache of documents, was released earlier this year after being probed by an international consortium of investigative journalists.
Isabel dos Santos has denied all wrongdoing but has already been forced by the situation to divest most of her investments in Portugal.
