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Malta has demanded 200,000 euro in outstanding taxes from Kento Holding Limited, a telecom consulting company owned by Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos. The company is one of 14 dos Santos-owned entities in Malta, maltatoday reported. Kento Holding received consultancy fees for services related to the acquisition of TV channels and telecom redistribution agreements.
Earlier, Kento Holding asked the government for a 99,000-euro VAT refund. However, Malta’s Compliance and Investigations Directorate later uncovered that the telecom company did not conduct any actual economic activity in Malta and, therefore, was not entitled to the refund.
Since its registration in 2018, Kento Holdings has reported no turnover, making it unlikely that the company had any intention to conduct economic activity in the country.
In 2020, the Maltese revenue agency launched an investigation into dos Santos’ assets after the Luanda Leaks investigative report accused her of corruption and dubious business practices.
Dos Santos is the daughter of former Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled the country for nearly 40 years until 2017. Later that year, President Joao Lourenco sacked dos Santos’s son from his post as the chairman of Angola’s sovereign wealth fund. He later dismissed Isabel dos Santos as the head of Sonangol, Angola’s state-owned oil company. The new president moved against the former first family after declaring a highly publicized anti-corruption agenda.
In December 2019, an Angolan court issued an order to freeze the domestic holdings of dos Santos and her husband, Sindika Dokolo. Dokolo tragically died at the age of 48 while free diving in Dubai in October 2020. Her assets, estimated at more than $400 million according to Forbes, included stakes in the Angolan mobile telecom firm Unitel and two Angolan banks.
