Isabel Dos Santos Denies Firm’s $850 Million Port Claim Rejected
Isabel Dos Santos Denies Firm’s $850 Million Port Claim Rejected
Isabel dos Santos denied that a company in which she has a direct stake had failed in its claim for $850 million compensation over a canceled port contract.
The Paris-based arbitration tribunal had “simply found that it could not rule on any merits as it decided it did not have the competence to assess the matter and, therefore, did not take a position on the requests submitted,” dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman, said in emailed statement Tuesday.
The Angolan government on Monday said a Paris tribunal rejected Atlantic Ventures SA’s claim and ordered the company to pay its legal fees.
Atlantic Ventures won the contract to build the Port of Dande, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) north the capital, Luanda, in September 2017, shortly before Isabel’s father Jose Eduardo dos Santos stepped down as president after 38 years in charge.
The contract was withdrawn by Joao Lourenco, who replaced Dos Santos as president.
She faces several civil and criminal cases in which the government claims more than $5 billion, according to the prosecutor general’s office. She denies any wrongdoing and says the allegations are politically motivated.
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