The family who millions on yachts, supercars ...and Michael Ja Spent ackson’s glove
THE WORLD’S
THE case followed a U.S. Senate investigation into a bank’s role in facilitating corruption by Equatorial Guinea’s president and family.
It revealed that Nguema Obiang junior used his position to pilfer the country’s accounts and launder the money in France.
He’d splashed out on a 101-room mansion on the exclusive Avenue Foch in
Paris, as well as on a fleet of high-end cars, art, watches, designer clothes, and fine wines, through a network of companies.
The court decision in July makes France the third country to recover assets from Nguema Obiang that are to be returned for the benefit of Equatoguineans.
On July 20, France adopted a law requiring seized assets in corruption cases to be returned to the public from whom they were stolen.
In 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice seized over £60m worth of Nguema Obiang’s assets, and in 2017, Switzerland seized his £80m superyacht and 25 supercars.
Bad
The U.S. Justice Department settled the case in 2014 after Nguema Obiang agreed to forfeit £25m.
Swiss prosecutors closed their probe in 2019 after he agreed to give up his cars, which raised over £22m at a subsequent auction.
Under both of the agreements, the forfeited assets must be returned to Equatorial Guinea but neither government has yet done so.
Nguema Obiang did manage, however, to hang onto the white glove the late superstar singer Michael Jackson wore during his Bad tour.
On July 23, the UK sanctioned Nguema Obiang with asset freezes and a travel ban on the basis of evidence uncovered in the cases.
Equatorial Guinea watchers still hope that the spotlight shone on the country’s rulers will finally see the end of the Obiang family’s rule.
But it seems the only event that could change things is the death of the country’s current, long-serving leader, Mr Obiang senior.
And even at 79 years of age, he shows no sign of stepping down.
President Obiang overthrew his uncle, Francisco Macias Nguema Obiang, on August 3, 1979, in a bloody coup d’état.
He placed his uncle on trial for his actions, including genocide.
Macías was sentenced to death and executed by firing squad on September 29 that year.
A new Moroccan presidential guard was required to form the firing squad, because local soldiers feared his alleged magical powers.
Obiang then declared his new government would make a fresh start from Macías’s brutal and repressive regime.
He granted amnesty to political prisoners and ended the previous regime’s system of forced labour.
But he made virtually no mention of his own role in the atrocities committed while in the army and running prisons while under his uncle’s rule.
And there is still no genuine opposition to his rule, or at least, not one brave or reckless enough to go up against him.
All but one of the seats in government are held by his own Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea.
Opposition
In a rare interview with German newspaper Der Spiegel, Mr Obiang asked: “What right does the opposition have to criticise the actions of a government?”
Even if an opposition could offer criticism, it would be difficult to find a way of getting its message out to povertystricken citizens living in remote rural areas. There are no newspapers at all and all broadcast media is owned by the government or operated by its allies.
Indeed, in July 2003, state-operated radio declared Obiang “the country’s god” with “all power over men and things”.
It added that the president was “in permanent contact with the Almighty” and “can decide to kill without anyone calling him to account and without going to hell”.
He personally made similar comments in 1993. His predecessor and uncle, Macías, had also proclaimed himself a god.
One of Obiang’s few
opponents has however accused him of being a cannibal.
Exiled rival politician Severo Moto has said Obiang “systematically eats his political rivals”, and that he once “devoured” the brain and testicles of a police commissioner.
He was also said to have skinned opponents alive and has eaten their brains.
None of this can be proved but if anything, it enhances Obiang’s rule of fear and control.
He has encouraged this cult of personality by ensuring that public speeches always end in well-wishing for himself rather than for the nation as a whole.
Creative
Important buildings have a presidential lodge, many towns and cities have streets
commemorating Obiang’s coup against Macías, and many people wear clothes with his face printed on them.
Like his predecessor and other African strongmen such as Idi Amin, Obiang has given himself several creative titles.
Among them are “Gentleman of the Great Island of Bioko, Annobón and Río Muni”.
He also refers to himself as El Jefe (the boss).
Abuses under Obiang have included “unlawful killings by security forces; governmentsanctioned kidnappings; systematic torture of prisoners and detainees by security forces”.
And there are more: “severe life-threatening conditions in prisons and detention facilities; impunity; arbitrary arrests; detention; and solitary detention.”
The president sits on a personal fortune of around £500million say researchers, and almost of it really belonging to the country.
In 2003, Obiang had told his citizenry that he felt compelled to take full control of the national treasury in order “to prevent civil servants from being tempted to engage in corrupt practices”.
Obiang then promptly deposited more than half a billion dollars into more than 60 accounts controlled by himself and his family in a U.S. bank in Washington.
Billions more from dodgy oil deals are suspected of having flowed into yet more Obiang-controlled secret accounts scattered around the world.
Then the U.S. Senate launched its probe and the embezzlement and money-laundering by Obiang junior came to light.
Yet it could, and should, have all been so different.
The discovery of oil in Equatorial Guinea in the 1990s generated enormous wealth that could have transformed the lives of those living in the small central
African country, had it been used to meet the government’s social and economic obligations as to rights.
Corruption
Systemic corruption and self-dealing has largely squandered that potential.
The president still maintains full control over the government and does not tolerate dissent.
Few, if any, details of the country’s budgets are published and public spending is opaque.
The recovered assets awaiting repatriation to
Equatorial Guinea by the three countries could finally deliver to the broader public tangible benefits from oil wealth.
Until now, those national assets have largely been enjoyed by a small group of the political elite, and specifically, the Obiang family.
But since the Obiangs remain in positions of power, and corruption in the country remains endemic, there is a high risk that those assets will be misused once returned.
Equatorial Guinean officials have attacked the corruption cases as a neo-colonialist attempt by foreign governments to loot the country’s resource wealth.
Assets
That, then, makes it critically important to keep the recovered assets independent from the government that seized them.
“This case, along with those in the United States and Switzerland, have exposed how the president’s son used his position of power to rob Equatoguineans of their rights.
“But they have fallen short of holding him accountable,” said Tutu Alicante, executive director of EG Justice, back in July.
“Foreign governments need to right this wrong and sanction Teodorin for corruption.”
Don’t hold your breath…