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Britain has imposed sanctions on three people, including Africa’s former richest woman, as the Labor government steps up efforts to crack down on those facilitating money laundering through the British financial system.
The measures affect Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of Angola’s former president, and Dmytro Firtash, an exiled Ukrainian oligarch accused of embezzling money from the country’s gas reserves, as well as Aivars Lembergs, one of Latvia’s richest men who was jailed last year. for bribery by a court in Riga.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the sanctions “mark the first step towards achieving these objectives [an] ambition” to tackle “kleptocrats and the dirty money that gives them power”. He added: “The tide is turning. The golden age of money laundering is over.”
The appointments were made under a UK regulation aimed at combating global corruption, adopted in 2021, which allows sanctions to be imposed on people directly or indirectly involved in bribery or misappropriation of property. It is now used against it 50 individuals.
The Foreign Office said Thursday’s sanctions marked “a step change in the way this government uses its sanctions powers to make Britain a more hostile environment for corrupt actors to operate in”, by also targeting facilitators helping to move wealth into UK assets.
The British sanctions on Firtash will provide a boost to the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which has been investigating Russia’s Gazprom’s former partner in Ukraine for alleged gas distribution bribery.
Firtash has been in exile from Ukraine in Austria for a decade, where he is also fighting US extradition in a separate corruption case.
The Foreign Office said he “hid tens of millions of pounds of ill-gotten gains in the UK property market alone”, including the site of the former Brompton Road tube station, owned by his wife, who is also under sanctions. .
Lammy, who represents Tottenham, said: “As a London MP, this is personal for me. For too long, previous governments have turned a blind eye to the illegal flows of money through our capital. Houses in London are not the bitcoins of kleptocrats.”
On Thursday, Firtash’s lawyer, Daniel Knapp, said in a statement that the sanctions against his client and his wife Lada were “completely unfounded and politically motivated.” The statement indicated that Firtash plans to challenge the designation in court.
Dos Santos, who once claimed to be Africa’s first female billionaire, “systematically abused her positions at state-owned companies” to plunder Angola’s resources during her father’s 38-year rule, Britain said, as the country imposed a freeze of funds and imposed a travel ban on her.
She became chairman of Angolan state oil company Sonangol under her father’s rule after amassing business interests across the economy. Her downfall began shortly after a new president came to power in 2017, and since 2020 she has faced lawsuits or criminal investigations in multiple countries.
Dos Santos has already lost a battle in English courts to overturn an order to freeze her assets worldwide in a dispute with Unitel, Angola’s largest telecoms group, which she founded in 1998. Her 25 percent stake in the company was seized by the Angolan state and Unitel has accused her of plundering the group with loans.
A spokesperson for dos Santos said the decision was “wrong, unfair and unjustified”, adding that she had not been given the opportunity to defend herself against Britain’s accusations and that she planned to appeal .
“She did not embezzle any money from Sonangol, nor did she embezzle any money from Unitel,” she added. “No court has found Ms Isabel dos Santos guilty of corruption, bribery or embezzlement.”
Lembergs could not be reached for comment, although he has previously denied all allegations.