Dos Santos, eldest child of Angola’s former President José Eduardo dos Santos, was alleged to have been trying to dissipate her assets as quickly as possible – including a stake in Angolan telco Unitel.
But now her lawyers are claiming that the court in Luanda, capital of Angola, relied on forged documents, including a fake passport (pictured) with a signature of Bruce Lee, in making its decision.
Her lawyers said in a statement: “Under a fake name, an internet fraudster claimed to be a Middle Eastern businessman representing the interests of Ms dos Santos. The target of his scam was a start-up Japanese company, Synapse Corporation Inc, to whom he sent a copy of Ms dos Santos’ fake passport and offered a loan agreement ‘from 10 million to one billion dollars’.”
Dos Santos’s lawyers have issued a copy of the fake passport, pointing to the errors – including a signature of the late Kung Fu actor Bruce Lee, who died in 1973.
However the lawyers’ statement contains its own errors: the actual email from the Middle Eastern businessman said: “We can invest from 10 million to a billion euros,” – not dollars.
The lawyers say that the documents were used to claim Dos Santos “was selling her stake in the Angolan telecom company Unitel to an unnamed investor from the United Arab Emirates – therefore, taking money out of the country”.
The lawyers add: “In court applications, parties must present honest and true evidence to support their claims, but the Angolan Public Prosecutor's Office presented material evidence that was fabricated and based on a forgery. This court decision should be struck out as abuse of process and the judgement set aside.”
