JOHANNESBURG A court in Angola has sentenced the son of former President Jose Eduardo dos Santos to five years in prison for fraud and other crimes.
The Angolan Supreme Court sentenced Jose Filomeno do Santos, former head of the countrys sovereign wealth fund, and three other defendants for crimes that also included embezzlement and influence-peddling, the Portuguese news agency Lusa reported.
Prison terms ranged from five to eight years.
Dos Santos in 2018 was prevented from leaving the oil-rich southern African nation. He was accused along with the former governor of the National Bank of Angola, Valter Filipe, over an irregular transfer of $500 million to a British bank.
Dos Santos had been appointed board chairman of Angolas sovereign wealth fund while his father was president. Jose Eduardo dos Santos left office in 2017 after nearly 38 years in power.
Shortly after taking office, current President Joao Lourenco removed dos Santos as the wealth fund’s chairman and fired dos Santos daughter said to be Africas richest woman as chair of the powerful state-owned oil company.
Lourenco, Angolas former defense minister, also appointed a crop of new ministers to differentiate himself from his predecessor while vowing to tackle the corruption that has long hurt one of Africas largest oil producers.
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