[rjsw]

I did read the article but know nothing about Angola.

My take was that she seems to have a similar background to a typical Russian oligarch. Being smart enough to take advantage of a particular situation doesn't mean that you should do that.

[johnnycab]

>My take was that she seems to have a similar background to a typical Russian oligarch.

This is a fairly accurate assessment, based on the pillaging of resources, borne out of a privileged position. The usual pilfering of other assets such as telecoms, banks, apart from oil and diamonds, there is a litany of dodgy loans, stakes in foreign companies, expensive art collection, super yacht, a sprawling property portfolio and more, as is de-rigueur for anyone looting a country, is also mentioned in the article.

The Luanda Leaks are the subject of BBC Panorama tonight at 2030 GMT.

[close04]

> But her wealth is the subject of mounting scrutiny

The problem is articles like this glamorize the people and the activities. "Savvy investor", "lucky". I know the verdict isn't in and if she did her job just right it will never be. The whole point of being so rich and benefiting from nepotism is that nobody can or wants to touch you. But from a reasonable perspective I guess it's pretty obvious that with such relationships you don't get rich in a country where most barely go from one day to the next by making honest business. This while state coffers that should be full somehow stay empty.

On the flip side you have just "mounting scrutiny". This article does too good of a job at staying "impartial" by completely avoiding any claim that the accusations are real. But gives a strong hint that she is actually the savvy businesswoman she presents herself as. You never get sued for defamation for saying that eh?

[DyslexicAtheist]

> you don't get rich in a country where most barely go from one day to the next by making honest business

probably why she has hundreds of businesses in her name located in the UK, France and literally any other place that isn't Africa: https://aleph.occrp.org/search?q=Isabel%20dos%20Santos

[tossser9991991]

Financed by Angola's natural resources.

Yeah, she seems smart, but being smart alone usually is not enough. Having big piles of cash "stolen" from the one of the richest in natural resources country in the world sure does help.

[htfu]

Eh are we reading the same article series?

> Luanda Leaks An investigation into how Africa's richest woman, Isabel dos Santos, acquired her fortune

How Angola's state oil firm was left with just $309 in its account Published: 19 Jan 2020

Revealed: how Angolan ruler's daughter used her status to build $2bn empire Published: 19 Jan 2020

The diamond deal that rocked Angola Published: 19 Jan 2020

[close04]

I was reading this article and the quotes are from this one. Plenty of articles glamorize the lives and career of such people before the verdict is in. Probably because nobody will sue them for a praise.

You took the old HN rule of “don’t tell people have you even read the article” and took it a step further by asking me if I read a completely different article in the series.

[rjsw]

The articles are linked together though, and are on the same website.

[close04]

Just like every wikipedia page. I don’t see your point that because some other article says something, my point about this article is invalid.

Let’s agree that some episodes in a series are worse than others and the one linked above is that one, if you say all the others don’t have this issue, and I happened to be exactly the one linked in this post.

[htfu]

To be fair the quote consists of headlines appearing alongside every article in the series, and as such ought to be taken as part of the package - you don't need to navigate anywhere to see them.

Does every single piece need to hammer in how awful someone is when the whole makes entirely clear they indeed are?