The name of the richest Russian woman in Africa, Isabel dos Santos, in addition to all her current problems, was suddenly remembered in the context of a sports scandal. In the autumn, a hearing is scheduled on the charges of Manchester City for hundreds of violations of financial regulations. The founder of Football Leaks, Rui Pinto, added fuel to the fire of the English champion, stating that he still has something to share with the football authorities. This is the same Rui Pinto, thanks to whom the Russian "princess" of Angola can be reformatted from a billionaire into a millionaire.

A little about football

The Australian investigative journalist, founder of WikiLeaks (English wiki and leak - "leak") Julian Assange, who spent five years in Belmarsh prison and another seven in the Ecuadorian embassy, has grown up a worthy replacement. But if the United States had a grudge against Assange, then the UK now has reasons to "find and neutralize" the founder of Football Leaks ("football leak") Rui Pinto. Thanks to Pinto’s previous "leak", English champions Manchester City have been missing out on European competition for two years now, and this apparently wasn’t enough for the Portuguese hacker (although he doesn’t consider himself one). The English Premier League (EPL) is currently conducting another investigation into Manchester City. The club is accused of more than a hundred violations of financial regulations, which could mean the Citizens saying goodbye to the Premier League. The case is scheduled to be heard in the fall, and Rui Pinto knows this very well. Nevertheless, he announced to the world that he still has a lot on Manchester City, and promised to publish documents showing how the club allegedly deliberately misled the EPL and UEFA by providing fake financial reports.

By birthright

If Rui Pinto had hiccups during his revealing speech at the Offshore-Alert Marbella Conference, he should be able to guess who is remembering him. Several years ago, he also promised to publish (and published) documents about the dubious schemes of the richest woman in Africa, Isabel dos Santos. As a result, the billionaire’s assets were frozen while the trial was ongoing. And Forbes counted her assets at $3.5 billion in the fall of 2017.

Dos Santos is the daughter of former Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos. He ruled the country for an eternity, from 1979 to 2017, a month short of Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Nguema’s record for the longest tenure as head of state among heads of non-monarchical states. He was married three times, the first to a student from Penza, Tatyana Kukanova; they met when Santos was studying at the Oil Institute in Baku. As a result of this marriage, Isabel was born, who has Russian citizenship by birthright. And she has never renounced it.

Although José Santos has ten children, the main laurels went to the firstborn. Dad gave Isabel everything, including the state oil company Sonangol (Angola ranks 16th in the world in terms of oil reserves, this is the country’s main source of income). The new president, João Lourenço, by the way, immediately set about eradicating corruption and fired dos Santos from everywhere he could reach. But "something" remained:

• 25% of the mobile operator Unitel

• 25% of the bank Banco BIC

• 20% of the bank Banco BPI

• 15% of cable television ZON Multimedia

• 6% in the oil and gas company Galp Energia

• a controlling stake in the telecommunications company Nos SGPS

It is unlikely that this is all...

At the call of his heart,

Rui Pinto published more than 715,000 documents of incriminating evidence on dos Santos and her loved ones, most of them in Portuguese (Angola is a former colony of Portugal). In essence, this is the processing of "leaked" reports from the companies of Isabel and her husband, correspondence (apparently, there was a hack of e-mail), tax reports, etc. "Wind Rose" - Isabel dos Santos, at the instigation of her father, treated Angola as a cash cow, and in general she is a monster of corruption. There are 35 million people living in Angola, and the vast majority cannot afford to spend more than $ 2 per day. The accusation of enrichment at the expense of the common people is the most popular claim against the family of the ex-president. As a result, the Angolan authorities opened a criminal case and demanded $ 1.1 billion from dos Santos (let us recall that she has $ 3.5 billion, that is, a third). She was accused of money laundering, embezzlement, ineffective management, influence peddling, document forgery, and was even briefly arrested. And the High Court of London froze assets and funds worth £580 million (more than €660 million) in a lawsuit filed by the Angolan telecom operator Unitel - the case involves loans made in 2012-2013, when the businesswoman was the director of this company. And the icing on the cake was the announcement of dos Santos on the Interpol wanted list. This is already very serious.

From Mauritius to Hong Kong,

ICIJ (International Consortium of Investigative Journalists) found a whole business empire of dos Santos and her husband Sindika Dokolo with more than 400 companies and subsidiaries in 41 countries, including at least 94 in offshore zones such as Malta, Mauritius and Hong Kong. Fans of the entrepreneurial talents of the businesswoman can read about it here. The ICIJ investigation has attracted the attention of many reputable international media outlets, including The New York Times and The Guardian, but the Russian media have somehow ignored the “secret of success.” “Nasha Versiya” has studied the ICIJ report. Of course, such leaks should be treated critically, especially since they are unlikely to happen by accident, although Rui Pinto swore that he did it not for money, but at the call of his heart. For those readers who are interested in the recipe for “how to become a billionaire,” we will briefly retell the version of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

Money Machine

It will be difficult without an influential patron, but if you have a close relative who is the president of some country, you can receive contracts for public and consulting work, licenses and loans for billions of dollars from the government. To avoid inspections, it is better to play it safe and work through shell companies that you control yourself. They will take out loans that will then cause "serious concern" among creditors. It is most profitable to invest in real estate, energy and media, and in order to service this entire empire, you need to buy several large blocks of shares in banks. A multiple increase in prices for government contracts - why not? To prevent these government contracts from going to someone else, the president can amend the country’s constitution to the effect that "the president cannot be held accountable for any official actions except in cases of bribery or treason." This will allow transferring state assets to family and friends. After all, an "ATM" can not only take money, but also give it out. Bingo - dividends! Only not simple ones, but increased ones. In the case where there is not enough capital to service the debts, remember about oil and diamonds - China will gladly accept them as collateral. This entire "money machine" must be protected, so about a third of the companies must be shell companies, in the event of Armageddon - the ends in the water. Rui Pinto

knows too much

spoke at an international conference of lawyers via video link. The Portuguese hacker, for obvious reasons, is persona non grata, and has made many ill-wishers and is now under the witness protection program. He partially repeated the fate of Julian Assange in that he also sat in prison, was extradited from Budapest to Portugal on charges of extortion and hacking. He faced up to ten years in prison, but he got off with just four years probation. Apparently, not for his pretty eyes, but because he knows a lot and talks a lot. The "resurrection" of Rui Pinto in London, albeit virtual, does not bode well for either Manchester City or Isabel dos Santos.

But what does London and Isabel dos Santos have to do with it? Tatyana Kukanova (Santos) has been living in London for a long time; after the divorce, Isabel stayed with her and studied at the prestigious King’s College. And in her mature life, she never forgot Foggy Albion; she has part of her business there and elite real estate. It is not worth excluding the possibility that dos Santos also has a British passport, although there is no open data on this. If we superimpose the "Russian theme" and the "anti-corruption component" on what is happening, it is easy to predict that the potential for attacks on the Russian "princess" of Angola is far from exhausted.

By the way,

if billionaire Isabel dos Santos is a citizen of Russia, does that mean she is the richest woman not only on the "black continent", but also in our country? No, she is not. Russia’s richest woman is Wildberries  CEO Tatyana Bakalchuk Forbes estimates her fortune at $7.4 billion, which is twice as much as dos Santos’s.