BY PAUL O’DONOGHUE, Senior Correspondent
THE UK has imposed sanctions on three individuals, including Africa’s former richest woman, as part of a new campaign to combat money laundering.
The sanctions target Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of Angola’s former president; Dmytro Firtash, an exiled Ukrainian oligarch accused of embezzling funds from Ukraine’s gas sector; and Aivars Lembergs, a wealthy Latvian businessman convicted of bribery in 2023.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the sanctions represent the “first step in delivering [an] ambition” to tackle “kleptocrats and the dirty money that empowers them.” He added: “The tide is turning. The golden age of money laundering is over.”
The UK government said that Dos Santos, once considered Africa’s first female billionaire, “systematically abused her positions at state-run to embezzle at least £350 million” during her father’s 38-year presidency. She faces asset freezes and travel bans as part of the sanctions.
Dos Santos’s business empire began with Angola’s state oil company. However, since 2017, following a leadership change in Angola, she has been the subject of legal disputes and criminal investigations.
Firtash’s sanction is seen as a win for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose government has been investigating Firtash for alleged corruption in the gas sector. Firtash, living in exile in Austria for a decade, is also fighting a separate US extradition case related to corruption.
The Foreign Office also stated that Firtash has hidden “tens of millions of pounds” in UK properties, including the site of the former Brompton Road tube station, owned by his wife, who is also sanctioned.
Lammy added, “For too long, previous governments have turned a blind eye to illicit funds flowing through our capital. London homes are not the Bitcoins of kleptocrats.”
The sanctions were imposed under a UK regulation introduced in 2021 to fight global corruption.
Firtash and dos Santos did not respond to requests for comment from Financial Times. Lembergs could not be reached. All three have denied wrongdoing.
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