Angola has recovered assets worth more than U.S.$11 billion that had been looted from state coffers and stashed in countries around the world, Justice Minister Francisco Queiroz has said.
The authorities have launched 715 criminal prosecutions for corruption, fraud, embezzlement and other financial crimes, Queiroz said in the state-owned Jornal de Angola.
After taking office in 2017, President Joao Lourenco launched an anti-corruption drive to recoup assets he suspected were embezzled under his predecessor, Jose Eduardo dos Santos’s administration.
In 2020, José Filomeno dos Santos became the first member of the former first family to be prosecuted as part of an anti-corruption campaign led by President Joao Lourenco.
He was charged with stealing U.S.$500 million from the Sovereign Wealth Fund and transferring it to a bank account in Switzerland.
Soon after, Dos Santos’s billionaire daughter Isabel dos Santos was also probed for a long list of crimes, including mismanagement, embezzlement and money laundering during her tenure at the state-run oil giant Sonangol.