Consultants of two of the world’s most significant skilled solutions firms have identified on their own at the coronary heart of a big corruption probe in Portugal. An investigation into the dealings of billionaire Isabel dos Santos has viewed the workplaces of PwC and Boston Consulting Group raided.
Telecommunications and banking magnate Isabel dos Santos – the eldest daughter of Angola’s former President José Eduardo dos Santos – was once considered as Africa’s richest lady – with Forbes magazine listing her net worth at in excess of $2 billion.
Nonetheless, recent decades have viewed her grow to be the subject of a stunning fall from grace – and she was dropped from the magazine’s abundant listing in January 2021, having experienced her belongings in Angola, Portugal and the Netherlands frozen.
While dos Santos has denied wrongdoing, beforehand calling accusations versus her a “witch hunt”, she has been beneath felony and civil investigations because 2019.
This started soon after the Worldwide Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and 36 media partners printed the Luanda Leaks investigation – which include documents displaying how Dos Santos had leveraged household ties, crafted shell providers, and deployed inside investing to develop a company empire of transactions and luxury homes in Europe, Africa and North America.
Immediately after the ICIJ brought the investigation to the notice of the govt of Angola, a courtroom froze Dos Santos’ big property, together with banking companies and a telecom firm. Then, in early 2020, a choose in Portugal – of which Angola is a former colony –ordered the seizure of all Dos Santos’ belongings in the place.
But Dos Santos is not the only celebration accused of orchestrating the rip-off. The Luanda Papers also confirmed that a network of American and European businesses experienced suggested dos Santos for years – in spite of recurring warnings of her corruption. Among the those people corporations were world-wide approach advisory big Boston Consulting Team, and Massive 4 accounting and consulting organization PwC.
Owing to these ties, equally Portugal and Angola have been keen to seem into a quantity of organisations in Portugal. In 2020, a Portuguese govt regulator issued calls for the criminal prosecution of auditing businesses that experienced worked for the billionaire – but the Portuguese police’s current place of work raid came at the behest of Angola’s federal government.
Experiences in the push counsel that the Angolan federal government especially asked for for Portugal’s law enforcement to look at the Lisbon offices of Boston Consulting Team, PwC, and Eurobic – a bank previously aspect-owned by dos Santos. The raids were being done before this 7 days.
The push notes that Angola believes the lookups will change up data relevant to the decline of community resources from its state-owned oil firm, Sonangol, exactly where Dos Santos formerly served as the Chairperson.
Allegations
The Luanda Leaks investigation pointed out a amount of examples where senior figures from the qualified products and services giants experienced labored for dos Santos. A single situation saw Boston Consulting Group assist Dos Santos run a failing jewellery small business – which was obtained with Angolan general public resources.
In the meantime, other documents show PwC played a critical purpose in Dos Santos’ tax dealings, advising on approaches of keeping away from Angolan tax and other troubles, for worthwhile fees. In the two instances, the ICIJ mentioned that Boston Consulting Team and PwC experienced served Dos Santos extensive after other Western corporations and banks had distanced them selves from the Angolan billionaire, who was struggling with inquiries about the resource of her wealth.
Though Boston Consulting Group resources explained to ICIJ they believed it was “not appropriate” to comment presented ongoing “investigations with regards to allegations versus Isabel dos Santos”, PwC’s Chair Bob Moritz was much more forthcoming with remark. Talking to The Guardian, he famous getting “shocked and disappointed” by the revelations that the business had advised organizations owned by dos Santos. In the meantime a leading tax advisor with PwC still left the agency pursuing the scandal.
It is not the 1st time either business has been placed in the spotlight for controversial dealings, nevertheless. The ICIJ also just lately unveiled a report all over its Pandora Papers, which in depth how PwC helped Alexei Mordashov – a Russian steel baron, and extended-time client – improve his offshore empire. According to the Pandora Papers, his dealings are closely tied to transactions with firms linked to a critical Vladimir Putin associate.
In 2017, in the meantime, Boston Consulting Group was the goal of yet another raid by Portuguese police, immediately after a nearby customer grew to become the subject matter of a corruption inquiry. Lengthy-term firm consumer Energias de Portugal’s CEO was named as a suspect in an ongoing bribery investigation, inciting regulation enforcement brokers to search the consultancy’s Lisbon office.
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