Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Davos braces for Trump-Greta showdown as climate change tops agenda

It's the first time the two are attending the same event since the teenager famously stared down Trump at the UN last year. The annual jamboree is taking place against the backdrop of Australia's worst ever bushfires.


Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg returns to the Swiss ski resort of Davos for the 2020 World Economic Forum with a strong and clear message: put an end to the fossil fuel "madness."

Thunberg's missive is aimed at, among others, US President Donald Trump, who in the past has mocked the Swedish environmental campaigner, saying she has an "anger management problem." Trump, who is among the most prominent climate change skeptics, is returning to Davos after giving it a miss in 2019 due to a government shutdown.

It's the first time Trump and Thunberg would be present at the same event since last year's United Nations climate change summit in New York, where the teenager could be seen staring down the US president as the two briefly crossed paths.

Later, Thunberg — named Time magazine's Person of the Year 2019 — told the BBC that she "wouldn't have wasted [her] time" talking to Trump about the climate crisis at the UN event.

"Honestly, I don't think I would have said anything because obviously he's not listening to scientists and experts, so why would he listen to me," she said.


Greta Thunberg hits back at critics

'State of emergency'

Thunberg, who famously told Davos participants last year that "our house is on fire," has, however, found support among the organizers of the World Economic Forum, including its 81-year-old founder Klaus Schwab, who said the world is facing "a state of emergency."

"We do not want to reach the tipping point of irreversibility on climate change," Schwab told reporters on Tuesday. "We do not want the next generations to inherit a world, which becomes ever more hostile and ever less habitable — just think of the wildfires in Australia," he said.

An annual risks survey published by the WEF on Wednesday put climate and other environmental threats ahead of risks posed by geopolitical tensions and cyberattacks. It's the first time that the survey found the top five long-term risks were all environmental, from extreme weather events to businesses and governments failing to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Stakeholder capitalism

Sustainability is the main theme at this year's Davos meeting, taking place at a time the world is grappling with global warming becoming worse because of growing divisions among nations and businesses on how to tackle it.

The meeting, which will see over 50 heads of state and government, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, descend on the Alpine resort, seeks to give concrete meaning to "stakeholder capitalism" — a concept that businesses should serve the interests of all society rather than simply their shareholders.

"Business has now to fully embrace stakeholder capitalism, which means not only maximizing profits, but use their capabilities and resources in cooperation with governments and civil society to address the key issues of this decade," Schwab said. "They have to actively contribute to a more cohesive and sustainable world."
Davos 2020 by the numbersAbout 3,000 participants from nearly 120 countries. One in four participants is a woman53 heads of state and governmentNearly 1,700 business leaders, including CEOs from 8 of the 10 most valuable companies in the worldOver 350 sessions and workshops88% of the cars used by the WEF are electric or hybrid

2019: CLIMATE PROTESTS TAKE CENTER STAGE AS THE WORLD BURNS
January: Germany sets coal end date 
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-to-stop-using-coal-by-end-of-2038/a-47244572
After lengthy talks, a government-appointed commission announces Germany plans to stop producing energy from coal-fired plants by 2038. Climate campaigners say it's too little, too late. Germany currently generates nearly 40% of its electricity from coal and has failed to meet targets set under the 2015 Paris climate agreement. The anticipated phaseout cost: €40 billion ($44 billion).
1/12


Greener Davos

The annual jamboree — which is marking its golden jubilee this year — has often been criticized for its own carbon footprint, mainly left behind by leaders flying in their private jets.

The WEF, on its part, is touting that this year's meet would be among the most sustainable international summits ever held. It promises to buy carbon credits to offset flights, line up more electric vehicles and offer locally-sourced food.

"It is something we take very seriously,'' Adrian Monck, the WEF's managing director, told reporters. "There is nothing worse than an organization identifying a risk and doing nothing about it."

The WEF plans to launch a scheme using public and private funds to plant 1 trillion trees by the end of this decade.

Geopolitical tensions

The summit that runs from Tuesday to Friday this week would also focus on issues such as global trade wars, inequality, record debt levels and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

While key leaders from Iraq, the Palestinian Authority, Pakistan and Afghanistan are expected to attend the event, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamad Javad Zarif will not be present as Tehran deals with protests following the downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet.

Zarif's cancelation also comes against the backdrop of rising tensions in the Middle East since US air strikes killed Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian general, earlier in the month.

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TAAL TALES
Signs of life at 'no-man's land' around Philippine volcano

Issued on: 21/01/2020 

Taal (Philippines) (AFP)

A desolate landscape of ash dunes and bare trees left by the eruption of the Philippines' Taal volcano lay in contrast with a few signs of life at ground zero of the disaster on Tuesday.

The island site was buried by massive deposits of ash when Taal erupted last week and remains under a mandatory evacuation order due to a feared bigger blast.

Yet about a dozen white cows milled near dust-blanketed homes, and several brightly coloured boats were docked at the shore on Tuesday, according to an AFP reporter taken on a rare military flight around the area.

Thin plumes of steam rose from the crater.

Authorities have said any outward signs of an imminent eruption have been weak over the past several days.

But scientists warn the volcano is still at risk of a major blast, and more than 110,000 people have taken refuge in shelters away from danger.

At least 3,000 who lived on the island were ordered out, though many have made trips back to rescue livestock or fetch items from their homes.

Many families previously offered services catering to the tourists who visited the volcano -- a popular attraction in the Philippines despite the risk of eruption.

The government has said it is now working on a plan to permanently relocate them, and turn the island into what officials have called a no-man's land.

© 2020 AFP
'We are in a dark tunnel': Lebanese fear economic collapse more than the Iran-U.S. conflict

Lebanon has been without a government since October as many people struggle to make ends meet


Margaret Evans · CBC News · Posted: Jan 10, 2020 

Police officers stand guard as protesters knock down the fencing outside of Lebanon Central Bank during an anti-government protest in Beirut back in November. (Andres Martinez Casares/Reuters)


"Now we are in a dark tunnel and we don't know what is happening or where we are going."

So said an old friend and driver in Beirut as Iran and the U.S. faced each other down in the immediate aftermath of the killing of Maj.-Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force, in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad a week ago.

He wasn't referring to that crisis though. Lebanon has too much history perched on the edge of wider regional conflicts to be too rattled by fears of another.

He was talking about Lebanon's economic and financial crisis, the worst since civil war ravaged the country between 1975 and 1990.

The Lebanese pound has depreciated by more than 30 per cent against the U.S. dollar since September.

And capital controls imposed by the banks are drastically limiting how much money people can withdraw, leaving many struggling to pay rent and put food on the table.

Ask people on the streets here about "the situation" and that's what they think you're talking about.


The roundabout leading to Hadi Nasrallah Boulevard in south Beirut, where posters of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani went up immediately after he was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Iraq. (Stephanie Jenzer/CBC)

"The most dangerous thing in Lebanon is economic collapse," said Makram Rabah, a political analyst, historian and lecturer at the American University of Beirut.

Lebanon has been without a government since the end of October, when protests against corruption and mismanagement forced the resignation of Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri.

The Sunni leader of the Future party, whose father, Rafik Hariri, was assassinated in 2005, is allied with Western nations and the Gulf states.


Sarah Ayoub, a 21-year-old student, says she isn't confident the protests that ousted Lebanon's prime minister have solved the country's corruption problems. (Stephanie Jenzer/CBC)

"They're acting so selfish — all of them," said 21-year-old student Sarah Ayoub, referring to the political elite she demonstrated against.

The protests were remarkable in that they crossed the sectarian lines that tend to define Lebanese politics, drawing demonstrators from the Sunni, Christian, Druze and Shia communities. They were united in their opposition to what they see as rampant cronyism, nepotism and influence peddling.

"We have to change the system and the laws so that there's less favouritism," Ayoub said. "And if we're all equal in that matter, without someone having an advantage because of who they know, then something will improve."


An anti-government protester shouts slogans during a protest against the ruling elite over corruption and mismanagement, in downtown Beirut last month. (Hussein Malla/The Associated Press)

Rabah focuses the blame on Iran and its Lebanese acolyte, Hezbollah, the Shia paramilitary group and powerful political party that exerts considerable sway in Lebanon.

"Iran has hijacked these states from within, which has exposed their economies," he said, referring also to Iraq, where anti-corruption protests were fuelled in part by anger over Iranian meddling in the country's affairs.

How the U.S. got to the brink of war with Iran

Iran has funded militias inside Iraq. It has also helped arm and fund Hezbollah in Lebanon, boosting its power.

Before his death, Soleimani was accused of ordering a deadly crackdown on the protests in Baghdad.

"Soleimani is someone who was spreading chaos and destruction in the region," said Rabah. "I do not support any kind of assassination, but at the end of the day, he got what he deserved in the sense that you live by the sword, you die by the sword."


Historian and political analyst Makram Rabah says the top concern in Lebanon isn't the tension and violence between the U.S. and Iran in the region, it's the risk of economic collapse. (Stephanie Jenzer/CBC)

But in south Beirut, Hezbollah heartland, there are huge billboards bearing Soleimani's image hanging from freeway overpasses and on the sides of apartment buildings, sharing the streets with pictures of Iran's ayatollahs.

"[Soleimani] is a loss because he has been fighting against terrorism and ISIS in Lebanon and Syria and Iran," said Ahmad Nasser, a father out walking with his nine-year-old daughter on Hadi Nasrallah Boulevard.

The street is named after Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah's son, who was killed during a guerrilla raid against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon in 1997.


Billboards of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the leader of Iran's Quds Force who was recently killed in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq, line the highway leading to Beirut's international airport. The signs describe Soleimani as 'the Leader of the Martyrs of the Axis of Resistance.' (Stephanie Jenzer/CBC)

Nasser is also worried about the country's economy, but he says Hezbollah must be a part of any solution.

"Hezbollah is a part of the social composition of Lebanon and has to be in government," he said.

ANALYSIS What's next in the conflict between the U.S. and Iran

Nasser supported the anti-government protests in the fall but says he has since changed his mind, fearful of a power vacuum developing.

It could also be because the man chosen to lead a new government, Hassan Diab, has the backing of Hezbollah.

Diab has so far failed to win support from al-Hariri, or from Christian factions worried that his association with Hezbollah, already the target of U.S. sanctions, will deter much-needed international investment in Lebanon.


Ahmad Nasser, out for a walk with his daughter, Nagham, says he's worried about Lebanon's economy. (Stephanie Jenzer/CBC)

After Soleimani's death, Nasrallah warned that U.S. soldiers would be returned home in coffins in retaliation.

Earlier this week, Iran launched missile strikes against military bases in Iraq housing U.S. troops, none of whom were injured. Hours later, a Ukraine International Airlines flight crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran, killing 176 people, including 57 Canadians — revised down from an earlier estimate of 63. Both Canada and the U.S. believe an Iranian missile shot down the plane — a claim Iran denies.

Like the United States, Canada considers Hezbollah a terrorist group.

But it is also an important part of the social fabric in large parts of Lebanon.

"They're not going away. It's not like there are 10 people and we can deport them," said economist and political analyst Kamel Wazne.

"They have representatives in parliament and municipalities and they're a powerful organization and it's very well structured."


Economist and political analyst Kamel Wazne says Hezbollah is a powerful force in Lebanon that's not going away. (Stephanie Jenzer/CBC)

Wazne says Lebanon will count on the Lebanese population abroad to help the country out of its economic crisis.

There have also been calls to create a government of experts to help solve the problem.

But 21-year-old Ayoub doesn't have much confidence that what's currently being negotiated is much more than a portfolio shuffle.

"We were on the street for 70 days and we still couldn't [overthrow] them," she said.


U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks to troops in an unannounced visit to Ain Assad airbase, Iraq, on Dec. 26, 2018. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

When she does turn her mind to the recent escalation of tension between Iran and the U.S., she says American President Donald Trump has done well for himself by putting his country first.

Ayoub says she'd like to see Lebanon's leaders focus more on putting the country and its people ahead of politics.

"If politicians in Lebanon were behaving the same way that Trump is behaving, we wouldn't have revolted against them."

New Lebanon prime minister named, vows to form new government quickly
ANALYSISTrudeau is just the latest PM to keep his distance from an American act of war

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Margaret Evans

Europe correspondent

Margaret Evans is a correspondent based in the CBC News London bureau. A veteran conflict reporter, Evans has covered civil wars and strife in Angola, Chad and Sudan, as well as the myriad battlefields of the Middle East.
CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices|About CBC NewsReport Typo or Error|Send Feedback

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How the U.S. got to the brink of war with Iran
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Davos financiers pump $1.4 Trillion into fossil fuels: Greenpeace

Issued on: 21/01/2020 

Paris (AFP)

Some of the world's biggest banks, insurers and pension funds have collectively invested $1.4 trillion in fossil fuel companies since the Paris climate deal, Greenpeace said Tuesday at the start of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

With the climate emergency expected to be front and centre at the annual summit of the world's business elite, the charity accused some institutions in attendance of failing to live up to the Forum's goal of "improving the state of the world".

Greenpeace analysed the portfolios of 24 of the banks represented at Davos and found that they had financed the fossil fuel industry to the tune of $1.4 trillion since the landmark 2015 Paris deal.

That accord enjoins nations to limit global temperature rises to "well below" two degrees Celsius (3.6 Farenheit) through a rapid and wide-ranging drawdown of planet-warming carbon emissions.

The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) -- the world's leading authority on the subject -- says that for a better-than-even chance of reaching the safer Paris cap of 1.5C, oil and gas consumption would need to decline 37 percent and 25 percent respectively by 2030.

The IPCC says coal use must fall two thirds by 2030 and fall to virtually zero by mid-century to keep Earth on a 1.5-C path.

Yet carbon emissions are growing every year as global energy demand surges, and the International Energy Association said Monday that fossil fuel companies are still only investing 0.8 percent of their spending in renewables.

Jennifer Morgan, executive director of Greenpeace International, said financial institutions were complicit in climate change by funding the fuels that drive it.

"Banks, insurers and pension funds are as culpable for the climate emergency as the fossil fuel industry -- specifically those that go to Davos," Morgan told AFP.

"These Davos players say they support the Paris agreement but since its signing they've pumped $1.4 trillion into fossil fuels."

- 'Propping up dirty energy' -

The Greenpeace report found that just 10 banks had provided $1 trillion to fossil fuels since Paris. That same amount could pay to double the world's solar power capacity.

It also identified three pension funds with at least $26 billion in fossil fuel holdings, and alleged that four of the world's biggest insurance firms -- AIG, Prudential, Sompo and Tokio marine -- had no publicly disclosed policies to divest from fossil fuels."The fossil fuel industry needs the finance sector but its not the same the other way around, so why are these bank, insurers and pensions propping up dirty energy?" asked Morgan, who will be participating in the four-day Davos forum.

Last year green groups issued the Fossil Fuel Finance Report Card, identifying a rise in funding for coal, oil and gas each year since Paris was signed.

"The massive scale at which global banks continue to pump billions of dollars into fossil fuels is flatly incompatible with a liveable future," said Alison Kirsh, climate and energy lead researcher at Rainforest Action Network.

© 2020 AFP



Climate change to take centre stage at Davos

Issued on: 21/01/2020

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during 
the opening of the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos,
 Switzerland January 20, 2020. © 
REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

Text by:NEWS WIRES

Video 
https://vod-france24.akamaized.net/en/vod/2020/01/21/EN_20200121_080223_080400_CS.mp4

The starkly opposed visions of US President Donald Trump and Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg on climate change will clash in Davos on Tuesday as the World Economic Forum tries to face up to the perils of global warming on its 50th meeting.

The four-day gathering of the world's top political and business leaders in the Swiss Alps gets under way seeking to meet head-on the dangers to both the environment and economy from the heating of the planet.

Trump, who has repeatedly expressed scepticism about climate change, is set to give the first keynote address of Davos 2020 on Tuesday morning, on the same day as his impeachment trial opens at the Senate in Washington.

Around the same time, Thunberg will also attend a meeting at the forum, where she is expected to underline the message that has inspired millions around the world -- that governments are failing to wake up to the reality of climate change.

The forum's own Global Risks report published last week warned that "climate change is striking harder and more rapidly than many expected" with global temperatures on track to increase by at least three degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) towards the end of the century.

There are no expectations that the two, who have exchanged barbs through Twitter, will actually meet, but the crowded venue and intense schedule mean a chance encounter cannot be ruled out.

When Trump and his entourage walked through UN headquarters last year at the annual General Assembly, a photo of the teenager staring in apparent fury at the president from the sidelines went viral.

'No turning point'

Sustainability is the buzzword at the forum, which began in 1971, with heel crampons handed out to participants to encourage them to walk on the icy streets rather than use cars, and the signage paint made out of seaweed.

Trump's opposition to renewable energy, his withdrawal from the Paris climate accord negotiated under his predecessor Barack Obama, and the free hand extended to the fossil fuel industry puts him at odds with the entire thrust of the event.

"Climate change is a hot topic at Davos," said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit, adding there had been a "change in the atmosphere" and realisation that climate change represented a downside risk for the economy.

EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said at a welcome ceremony in Davos that "for too long, humanity took away resources from the environment and in exchange produced waste and pollution".

Business leaders attending the forum will be keen to tout their awareness on climate change but are likely also to be concerned by the state of the global economy whose prospects, according to the IMF, have improved but remain brittle.

The IMF cut its global growth estimate for 2020 to 3.3 percent, saying that a recent truce in the trade war between China and the US had brought some stability but that risks remained.

"We are already seeing some tentative signs of stabilisation but we have not reached a turning point yet," said IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva.

'Healthy balance'

Activists meanwhile will be pressing for much more concrete action to fight inequality, after Oxfam issued a report outlining how the number of billionaires has doubled in the past decade and the world's 22 richest men now have more wealth than all the women in Africa.

Other key priorities will be exploring how to battle biodiversity loss, narrow the digital divide between the internet haves and have nots and step up the fight against pandemics in the face of vaccine hesitancy and drug resistance.

"I am angry about the state of the world but I am also determined to engage and provide solutions and deliver," WWF director general Marco Lambertini told AFP. "There needs to be a healthy balance between these two sentiments."

The risk of global conflict will also loom large after the spike in tensions between the United States and Iran, following the killing of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike.

But a planned appearance by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif -- which could have paved the way for a showdown or even meeting with Trump -- has been cancelled.

Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaido -- who declared himself acting president last year -- will be attending the forum in defiance of a travel ban imposed by the regime of President Nicolas Maduro.

(AFP)



Angola vows to bring back billionaire Isabel dos Santos over graft claims

January 20, 2020 By Agence France-Presse



Angolan prosecutors vowed on Monday to use “all possible” means to bring back Isabel dos Santos, the former president’s billionaire daughter, after thousands of leaked documents revealed new allegations she siphoned off hundreds of millions in public money.

Dubbed Africa’s richest woman, dos Santos is accused of using her father’s backing to plunder state funds from the oil-rich but impoverished southern African country and — with the help of Western consulting firms — move the money offshore.


She stopped living in Angola after her authoritarian father Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled the country for nearly 40 years, stepped down in 2017 for his anointed successor Joao Lourenco.


She now spends her time between London and Dubai.

“We will use all possible means and activate international mechanisms to bring Isabel dos Santos back to the country,” prosecutor general Helder Pitra Gros told public radio.

“We have asked for international support from Portugal, Dubai and other countries,” he added.

The 46-year-old dos Santos is already being investigated as part of an anti-graft campaign launched by Lourenco, who has vowed to root out corruption.

Prosecutors last month froze bank accounts and holdings owned by the businesswoman and her Congolese-Danish husband Sindika Dokolo, a move dos Santos described as motivated by a groundless political vendetta.

Gros’ remarks came after a trove of 715,000 files dubbed the “Luanda Leaks” on Sunday revealed how the eldest daughter of the former president allegedly moved the vast sums into overseas assets.

The award-winning New York-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) behind the release alleged the international system has allowed powerful individuals like her to move assets around the world, without questions.

 
PUBLICO/AFP/File / FERNANDO VELUDO Prosecutors
 have already frozen the bank accounts and holdings 
owned by dos Santos and her Congolese husband Sindika Dokolo

“Based on a trove of more than 715,000 files, our investigation highlights a broken international regulatory system that allows professional services firms to serve the powerful with almost no questions asked,” the ICIJ wrote.

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”.

– ‘Highly coordinated attack’ –

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

“My fortune is built on my character, my intelligence, education, capacity for work, perseverance,” she wrote.

Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, and educated in Britain, dos Santos — scornfully nicknamed “the princess” — was named Africa’s first female billionaire in 2013 by Forbes, which estimates her current wealth at $2.1 billion.

Her lawyer dismissed the ICIJ findings as a “highly coordinated attack” orchestrated by Angola’s current rulers, in a statement quoted by The Guardian newspaper.

Dos Santos herself told BBC Africa the file dump was part of a “witch hunt” meant to discredit her and her father.
 
AFP/File / Adalberto ROQUE Former Angolan president 
Jose Eduardo Dos Santos ruled for nearly 40 years before stepping down in 2017

She headed Angola’s national oil company Sonangol until her father’s successor forced her out after becoming president in 2017.

“Red flags really went up when she was appointed head of the state oil company at a time when her father still had significant influence,” said Daniel Bruce, who heads the UK branch of anti-corruption campaign group Transparency International.

“You could see there were major conflicts of interest starting to emerge,” he added.

Dos Santos said on Wednesday that she would consider running for president in the next election in 2022.

– Western consultants –

The ICIJ investigation said Western consulting firms such as PwC and Boston Consulting Group were “apparently ignoring red flags” while helping her stash away public assets.

“Regulators around the globe have virtually ignored the key role Western professionals play in maintaining an offshore industry that drives money laundering and drains trillions from public coffers,” the report said.

Its document trove included redacted letters allegedly showing how consultants sought out ways to open non-transparent bank accounts.

London-based firm PwC*** was among those advising her businesses.

The consultancy said it had “immediately initiated an investigation” in the wake of the “very serious and concerning allegations.”

“We have also taken action to terminate any ongoing work for entities controlled by members of the dos Santos family,” it added in a statement.

The Boston Consulting Group did not immediately respond to an attempt to get comment by AFP.

One confidential document allegedly drafted by Boston Consulting in September 2015 outlined a complex scheme for the oil company to move its money offshore.

The investigation also published a similar 99-page presentation from KPMG.


“UK firms… have played a role both in helping her to amass this fortune but also to invest the proceeds of these suspicious deals,” said Bruce.

“There are questions to answer,” he added. “Particularly for those who helped her acquire property.”

Dos Santos and Dokolo have invested in several luxurious London houses and amassed an impressive collection of valuable artwork.

Her husband, a well-known collector of African arts, developed that passion from his billionaire banker father Augustin Dokolo Sanu.


*** PwC IS PRICE WATERHOUSE COOPER  ACCOUNTING 



Documents reveal how 'Africa's richest woman' stole fortune from her country 

Issued on: 20/01/2020

Isabel Dos Santos, daughter of Angola’s former President and Africa's richest woman, sits for a portrait during a Reuters interview in London, Britain, January 9, 2020. Picture taken on January 9. © REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo

Text by:NEWS WIRES|

Video by:Camille NEDELEC

An award-winning investigative team published a trove of files Sunday allegedly showing how Africa's richest woman syphoned 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.

"Based on a trove of more than 715,000 files, our investigation highlights a broken international regulatory system that allows professional services firms to serve the powerful with almost no questions asked," the ICIJ wrote.

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".

"My fortune is built on my character, my intelligence, education, capacity for work, perseverance," she wrote. 

She also blasted "the racism and prejudice" of SIC-Expresso, a Portuguese TV station and newspaper, and member of the ICIJ, "that recall the colonial era when an African could never be considered equal to a European".

Dos Santos's lawyer dismissed the ICIJ findings as a "highly coordinated attack" orchestrated by Angola's current rulers, in a statement quoted by The Guardian newspaper.

Dos Santos herself told BBC Africa the file dump was part of a "witch hunt" meant to discredit her and her father.

The former president's daughter headed Angola's national oil company Sonangol. Forbes magazine last year estimated her net worth at $2.2 billion.

Her father's successor Joao Lourenco forced her out of the oil company after becoming president in 2017.

Dos Santos said on Wednesday that she would consider running for president in the next election in 2022.

Western consultants 

The ICIJ investigation said Western consulting firms such as PwC and Boston Consulting Group were "apparently ignoring red flags" while helping her stash away public assets.

"Regulators around the globe have virtually ignored the key role Western professionals play in maintaining an offshore industry that drives money laundering and drains trillions from public coffers," the report said.

Its document trove included redacted letters allegedly showing how consultants sought out ways to open non-transparent bank accounts.

One confidential document allegedly drafted by Boston Consulting in September 2015 outlined a complex scheme for the oil company to move its money offshore.

The investigation also published a similar 99-page presentation from KPMG.

None of the companies named issued immediate statements in response to the investigation.

(AFP)

Luanda Leaks point to international complicity as Isabel dos Santos faces scrunity

Angolans are calling for an international investigation into the world-wide dealings that allowed Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of the former president, to become the richest woman in Africa. 

No Angolan ever believed that the fortune amassed by Isabel dos Santos, daughter of former President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, was acquired by legal means. But even the most skeptical might have been surprised by the extent of international connivance in the plundering of the country's resources as exposed by the recent leak of documents concerning "Africa's richest woman."
The New York-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on Sunday published a trove of files allegedly showing how dos Santos syphoned hundreds of millions of dollars of public money into offshore accounts. The more than 715,000 files — dubebd "Luanda Leaks" — were investigated by 120 reporters in 20 countries, including Germany.
Germany's involvement
German public broadcasters NDR and WDR, together with the daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, found that the beverage company Sodiba, owned by dos Santos and her husband, Sindika Dokolo, received a loan of €50 million ($55 million) from a subsidiary of the German development bank KfW without a prior comprehensive examination of the business. The loan was used by dos Santos to purchase a beer brewing plant and two bottling lines from German company Krones AG in 2015. Dos Santos' father allegedly used his influence to get the investment project approved.
Rafael Marques (DW/J. Beck)
Human rights activist and researcher Rafael Marques de Morais believes the current drive against corruption in Angola is legitimate
Human rights activist and researcher Rafael Marques de Morais says that it is "only fair" that countries like Germany now help investigate how international actors enabled the former president's 46-year-old daughter to acquire a vast fortune estimated at over $3 billion. "[German chancellor] Angela Merkel is visiting Angola [in February] and that issue must be raised: How come funds provided by the German government were also used to add to her [dos Santos'] wealth?"
"This is a major case of international corruption," de Morais told DW, adding: "It was the world that projected Isabel dos Santos as the richest and most successful businesswoman when she was a thief." According to the ICIJ, the leaked documents show how "Western financial firms, lawyers, accountants, government officials and management companies helped hide assets from tax authorities."
The stolen billion
According to the leaked files, in recent years dos Santos and her husband founded more than 400 companies in 41 jurisdictions, among them tax havens like Malta, Mauritius and Hong Kong. These companies continuously benefited from public contracts, consulting services and loans in Angola.
President Joao Lourenco was received in Berlin by his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier in 2018
In late December, Angolan authorities froze dos Santos' assets in the African country following allegations by prosecutors that she and her husband had embezzled more than $1 billion from state companies Sonangol and Sodiam. Isabel dos Santos was put in charge of Sonangol by her father in 2016. She was later fired from this position by her father's successor, Joao Lourenco.
Isabel dos Santos contonues to deny any wrongdoing. "My fortune is built on my character, my intelligence, education, capacity for work, perseverance," dos Santos wrote on social media platforms. She insists that both the current investigation in Angola and "Luanda Leaks" are politically motivated and coordinated attacks against her.
'Corruption is killing the country'
Some analysts have voiced suspicions that current president is not so much motivated by the fight against corruption than by a need to consolidate his power after succeeding long-time ruler Jose Eduardo dos Santos.  Robert Besseling, the executive director of EXX Africa — a company that assesses business risks — told DW that he believed economic interests were at stake too: "[The government] seem to be pressuring associates, family and business to give up the assets of key companies in Angola and elsewhere at the very moment when there is a privatization agenda, where the government is seeking to sell a large share of the economy," he said.
Rafael Marques de Morais disagrees. Severely persecuted for his anti-corruption activism during the dos Santos era, he believes that Lourenco is truly bent on cleaning up the country. However, this is also in his own best interest: Angolans are increasingly upset about the deep economic crisis in the oil-rich country, which was also precipitated by the plundering of its resources by a corrupt elite. The discontent does not bode well for President Lourenco's party, the MPLA, which has ruled the country since independence 45 years ago. "Dos Santos was in power for 38 years and he privatized the state mostly in favor of his children. That's why there is an investigation into corruption. And corruption must end in Angola, because it is killing the country," de Morais said.
Angola's huge wealth in natural resources has failed to trickle down to the population
The need to reform the judicial system
There are many investigations now taking place against current and former government officials. A number of generals and members of parliament have been indicted and some jailed. "There is an effort by the government to really bring on as many cases as the judicial system can handle." A major problem, however, is the lack of reform of Angola's judicial system. "All the judges and prosecutors currently in office have been appointed by dos Santos himself," de Morais explains.
The immunity granted to former President dos Santos, who now resides in Spain for what are said to be medical reasons, expires in 2022. "After that, it is expected that he will have to respond in court for his misdeeds," according to de Morais. Despite the controversy, last week, Isabel dos Santos said she would consider running for president of Angola in the 2022 election.

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