ICIJ: How 'Africa's richest woman' ripped off Angola

Dos Santos is considering running for President in next polls. Pic/AFP

London: An award-winning investigative team published a trove of files on Sunday allegedly showing how Africa's richest woman siphoned-off hundreds of millions of dollars of public money into offshore accounts.

The New York-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) worked with newspapers such as Munich's Suddeutsche Zeitung to reveal the 'Panama Papers' tax haven scandal in 2016.

Its latest series called 'Luanda Leaks' zeros in on Isabel dos Santos - the daughter of former Angola president Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

Angola's prosecutors last month froze the bank accounts and assets owned by the 46-year-old businesswoman and her Congolese husband Sindika Dokolo, which she described as a groundless political vendetta.

The group said its team of 120 reporters in 20 countries was able to trace 'how an army of Western financial firms, lawyers, accountants, government officials and management companies helped (dos Santos and Dokolo) hide assets from tax authorities.'

Dos Santos took to Twitter to refute the claims, launching a salvo of around 30 tweets in Portuguese and English, and accusing journalists involved in the investigation of telling 'lies'.

$2.2bn
Isabel's last year's net worth as estimated by Forbes magazine

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