The US has imposed visa restrictions on Isabel dos Santos, often described as Africa’s richest woman, “for her involvement in significant corruption by misappropriating public funds for her personal benefit”, a statement from US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken says.
Her name appears among a list of other people from across the globe accused of corruption who are facing US sanctions. It was released as part of the US government’s anti-corruption drive.
Ms Dos Santos is the daughter of Angola’s former president, José Eduardo dos Santos, who left office in 2017. While he was president, she was chair of the state oil company.
Mr Blinken’s statement does not go into details about what Ms Dos Santos is accused of having done.
Last year, the BBC reported that leaked documents revealed how she had made her fortune through alleged corruption.
She got access to lucrative deals involving land, oil, diamonds and telecoms when her father was president of Angola.
The documents showed how she and her husband were allowed to buy valuable state assets in a series of suspicious deals.
At the time, Ms Dos Santos said the allegations against her were entirely false and that there was a politically motivated witch-hunt by the Angolan government.
Two other Angolans – Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento and Manuel Helder Vieira Dias Juniorare – who were both former government officials have also been targeted.
They have been given so-called Magnitsky sanctions which means that US companies cannot have financial dealings with them.
The US Treasury has said that the two men “stole billions of dollars from the Angolan government through embezzlement”.
Other Africans named by the US Treasury for other alleged corruption were:
Liberian senator Prince Yormie Johnson.
South Sudanese businessman Benjamin Bol Mel.