With Malta still coming to terms with a political crisis, international news stories have fallen under the radar. However, the country has been thrust on the global stage after links to the richest woman in Africa who allegedly generated her wealth through exploitation and corruption.

Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of the former President of Angola, was handed lucrative deals in oil, land, diamonds, and telecoms while her father led the country.

While she has denied the claims, she is under criminal investigation in Angola for corruption with her assets being frozen.

Close to 700,000 documents have been leaked following work by the Platform to Protect Whistle-blowers in Africa and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (of which Times of Malta forms part), with Malta playing a role in dos Santos generating her massive wealth.

At least 10 Maltese companies have been identified, which were set up by a former PN MP and other local financial services operators.

One company, Wise Intelligence Solutions Limited (WISL), was handed an €8.5 million consultancy contract from Angola’s state-run energy company Sonangol. With the help of a separate contract from Angola Telecom, the company was able to declare a profit of €2.4 million.

Dos Santos was eventually made chairperson of Sonangol.

It is not the first time the dos Santos’ have hit Maltese news. In April 2017, journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia had revealed that dos Santos’ brother, José Eduardo dos Santos, was a client of Pilatus Bank, setting up an account there in 2015.

Two other Maltese companies owned by dos Santos’s husband and Angolan marketing company Sodiam, Victoria Limited and Victoria Holding, ply their trade in the diamond industry.

They were used to fund the million euro acquisition of 75% of a Swiss jewellery company, de Grisogono. It is believed that the companies were able to route million through Malta and the British Virgin Islands.

Dos Santos’ husband was granted “full control of the management” of de Grisogono.

Speaking to The Times of Malta, former PN MP Noel Buttigieg Scicluna defended dos Santos, explaining:

“Articles in various segments of the press have for some years been seeking to paint Mrs dos Santos and her husband in a bad light, but, to the best of my knowledge, nothing untoward has ever been put in action.”

The WISL work, he said, was even contracted to major industry players like Boston Global Consulting and PwC.

Ganado Advocates has been brought into the scandal, having helped set up the companies. A leaked email shows that a company they tried to set up (which has since been made subject to a criminal case) was flagged by the Malta Business Registry.

“I must also warn – and here I am wearing my hat as legal advisor – that there is a risk that, as competent authority, based on the Malta Today article, the ROC [Registry of Companies] could decide to file a Suspicious Transaction Report with the FIAU here in Malta which could then decide to start investigating the matter.”

“Of course this is just speculation as it would be impossible for us to be able to ascertain this as the matter would be strictly secret,” Ganado Advocates partner Antony Cremona wrote.

Speaking to the Times of Malta, the lawyer said the firm followed al due diligence.

“This involved also conducting extensive enhanced customer due diligence, also as required by applicable law. All our requests were satisfied by the clients. After the initial client onboarding processes, we also performed appropriate ongoing monitoring from time to time, as necessary.”