UK Targets Isabel dos Santos, Dmytro Firtash, and Aivars Lembergs in Anti-Money Laundering Crackdown

The United Kingdom has imposed sanctions on three prominent figures, including former Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos, as part of a renewed effort to tackle global money laundering and corruption. The sanctions also target Dmytro Firtash, a Ukrainian oligarch accused of embezzling funds, and Aivars Lembergs, a wealthy Latvian businessman convicted of bribery in 2023.

Announcing the measures, Foreign Secretary David Lammy described the move as a significant step in the UK’s fight against financial crime. “The tide is turning. The golden age of money laundering is over,” he said. “This is the first step in delivering [an] ambition to tackle kleptocrats and the dirty money that empowers them.”

Isabel dos Santos, once Africa’s wealthiest woman and daughter of Angola’s former president, has been accused by the UK government of “systematically abus[ing] her positions at state-run companies to embezzle at least £350 million” during her father’s 38-year rule. Dos Santos, whose business ventures began with Angola’s state oil company, faces asset freezes and travel bans under the new sanctions. Since a leadership change in Angola in 2017, she has been embroiled in legal disputes and investigations into alleged corruption.

For Dmytro Firtash, the sanctions mark a victory for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government, which has long pursued the exiled oligarch for alleged corruption in the gas sector. The UK’s Foreign Office claims that Firtash has hidden “tens of millions of pounds” in properties across the UK, including the site of the former Brompton Road tube station, owned by his wife, who is also sanctioned. Firtash has been living in Austria for over a decade and is also fighting a separate U.S. extradition case on corruption charges.

Aivars Lembergs, a Latvian businessman convicted of bribery in 2023, is also subject to the sanctions.

David Lammy criticized previous governments for failing to act decisively against illicit funds flowing through London. “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,” he said.

The sanctions, imposed under a regulation introduced by the UK in 2021 to combat global corruption, aim to clamp down on individuals accused of exploiting financial systems for personal gain.

Neither Firtash nor dos Santos responded to inquiries from the Financial Times, while Lembergs was unavailable for comment. All three have consistently denied wrongdoing.

By fLEXI tEAM