Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/463339
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 15 FEBRUARY 2015 4 News MATTHEW VELLA FIVE thousand kilometres away from the Angolan capital of Luanda, Malta is the registered address of a compa- ny whose ultimate owner is Sodiam, a subsidiary of Angola's state-owned diamond company, Endiama. It is a common set up for many for- eign companies, which set up subsid- iaries in Malta to also make use of the attractive tax rebate on foreign rev- enue, giving 85% of taxable income back to shareholders. But behind the set-up of Sodiam's Maltese subsidiary, Victoria Hold- ing, is its other owner, Melbourne Investment BV, a company owned by Sindika Dokolo, the husband of Af- rica's richest woman and first female billionaire – Isabel dos Santos. At 42 and valued at $3 billion by Forbes, African 'princess' Dos Santos is reckoned as a major force in many industries: such as diamonds, bank- ing and telecommunications. But being the eldest daughter of autocrat President José Eduardo dos Santos, Africa's second longest-serv- ing leader at 35 years in office, she stands like him accused of enriching the Dos Santos dynasty at the ex- pense of the nation. The real story – Angolan journalist Rafael Marques de Morais told Mal- taToday when contacted – is about how Isabel dos Santos acquired her wealth. In compiling their rich list, Forbes say that every major Angola investment she has "stems either from taking a chunk of a company that wants to do business in the coun- try or from a stroke of the President's pen that cut her into the action." MaltaToday's interest in the bil- lionaire's company base in Malta – most of the companies are shells that employ nobody bar financial advisors and lawyers – comes from a recently- registered company, Winterfell In- dustries. The company is a subsidiary of Niara Holding, a Portuguese com- pany whose owner is listed as Isabel dos Santos. Her company interests are managed here by Noel Buttigieg Scicluna, the former Nationalist MP and diplomat, who is listed as a director on several other related firms: Victoria Holding, Victoria Limited, Finisantoro Hold- ing, Kento Holding, Piccadilly Hold- ings, Soho Global Management So- lutions, Wise Intelligence Solutions Holding, and Athol Limited. Compared to her financially suc- cessful stakes in Angolan banking, diamonds and telecoms, a number of these Maltese companies do not appear to be always profit-making. Most of them hold interests else- where: Kento, owned by Dos Santos and husband Sindika Dokolu, is the vehicle for her investment in tel- ecommunications; Finisantoro holds her investment in Lisbon's Banco BPI. Others like Athol Limited are fully owned by Dokolu, used for the pur- chase of a Monaco property currently under construction: the promise-of- sale deposit alone is of €7.5 million. In compiling the Dos Santos wealth, Forbes was unable to trace the ori- gins of the billionaire's acquisition of stakes in Angola's state companies. Take Victoria Holding. The compa- ny is owned jointly by Angola's state diamond marketing company Sodi- am and husband Sindika Dokolu. In 2012 it acquired the €63 million debt that Swiss jeweller De Grisogono held with UBS and other banks. De Grisogono's founder, Fawaz Gruosi, was given shares in Victoria Limited, the subsidiary of Victoria Holding. Noel Buttigieg Scicluna told Malta- Today that neither Victoria Limited nor Victoria Holdings buy any dia- monds from Angola. "The Angolan diamond trade is not housed in a company in Malta," he said. But that conflicts with what De Grisogono founder Gruosi had told Swiss newspaper Le Matin, who said the deal gave De Grisogono "privi- leged access to top quality precious stones". To critics of Dos Santos, such as human rights activist and journalist Rafael Marques de Morais, who spent 22 years tracking down the origins of her fortune, it is clear that the family business has a stake in government companies. "The proven partnership between Isabel dos Santos, Sindika Dokolo and Sodiam amounts to a flagrant case of conflict of interest," writes De Morais, who faces nine separate defamation trials in Angola for his revelations on blood diamonds. "It is the President of the Republic who appoints and can dismiss the board," the journalist says. Tax benefits If Dos Santos's companies are be- ing used for tax treatment in Malta, there is nothing in the filed annual accounts suggesting a massive move- ment of profits overseas to Malta, as yet. Buttigieg Scicluna, senior consult- ant at EMD Advocates, was asked to comment on whether the Dos Santos companies use Malta to have their profits taxed over here, ostensibly to claim favourable rebates under Mal- ta's tax laws. "As a professional service provider I am not in the habit of responding to queries about my clients' affairs. The structures are transparent – as hope- fully you were able to verify yourself – and all relevant information is pub- licly available and can be checked. "This is the hallmark of Malta as a jurisdiction. The companies pay the taxes they are obliged to pay and file their financial statements that are also professionally audited, all as re- quired by law," he told MaltaToday. Of course, Dos Santos is no differ- ent from inventor Sir James Dyson, who in 2010 transferred his shares to a Maltese company but is now relo- cating it to the UK after paying over €100 million in tax. Or chicken res- taurant Nando's, which uses its Malta company to legally lower its UK cor- poration tax bill, and energy provider Npower, whose Malta subsidiary is Scaris International - another tax vehicle. As it happens, both Nando's Malta Holdings and Dos Santos's Winterfell Industries, share the serv- ices of director Edward Carbone, a one-time chief executive of the Malta Financial Services Authority. "All this is in line with the vision that the country's strategic leaders had when launching Malta as an in- ternational financial services centre," Buttigieg Scicluna told MaltaToday. "So querying precisely why inter- national operators respond to this strategy and set up in Malta seems counterintuitive and, quite frankly, does not appear to be in the country's best interests." mvella@mediatoday.com.mt The University of Malta has launched the 'Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award' (OAAA), to celebrate its graduates who have attained distinction in their chosen fields and who have used their education and their talents to reach out and improve the lives of others. The successful nominee will be honoured at a reception given by the University of Malta and will have his or her name inscribed on a plaque which will hang in a prominent place on Campus. A commemorative pin will be presented to the successful nominee. All alumni of the University of Malta, from anywhere in the world; all current members of the academic body and all other members of staff of the University of Malta as well as all registered students of the University of Malta may put forward nominations for this Award. Present academics, other members of staff and registered students of the University of Malta are not eligible for the Award. Nomination deadline: 15 April 2015. The regulations governing this Award, nomination forms and further information can be found at: www.um.edu.mt/alumni/oaaa Any queries can be addressed to Patricia Camilleri, Director, Communication and Alumni Relations on alumni@um.edu.mt or on tel.: 2340 3080. Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award University of Malta Alumni www.um.edu.mt/alumni Autocrat's daughter extends Maltese company network Angolan journalist Rafael Marques de Morais, who helped Forbes document Isabel dos Santos's $3 billion wealth, now faces a libel trail for accusing military leaders in the country of torture and homicide. Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch and 14 other human rights and free speech groups sent a letter to the U.N. and the African Commission on Human and People's Rights in August protesting the prosecution of Marques de Morais. Forbes's Kerry Dolan worked very closely with Rafael Marques de Morais to track down how Isabel dos Santos acquired a multi-billion dollar fortune, and whether these are the result of kleptocratic transfers initiated by her father. A Dos Santos spokesman has already declared that allegations of improper transfers are 'groundless and completely absurd'. Dolan's and Marques de Morais's article won a Loeb Award for International Reporting in June 2014. In 2011, his book 'Blood Diamonds: Torture and Corruption in Angola' recounted 500 cases of torture and 100 killings over an 18-month period in a diamond- mining district in Angola. According to the book, the torture and killings were carried out by guards from a private security firm and by members of the Angolan Armed Forces." De Grisogono's founder Fawaz Gruosi, Isabel dos Santos and husband Sindika Dokolo Noel Buttigieg Scicluna: director