A US deal forcing the son of Equatorial Guinea’s leader to turn over US$31.3 million in allegedly ill-gotten gains misses an opportunity to expose the workings of corruption in the oil-rich nation, human rights activists said.
The Open Society Justice Initiative said putting Equatorial Guinean Second Vice President Teodorin Nguema Obiang Mangue on trial would have brought “revelations that ... could have been of inestimable value to expose the nature of the corruption system in Equatorial Guinea, as well as the role of lawyers, bankers and other professionals who grease the wheels of abuse.”
Still, the New York-based organization welcomed the first US legal action of its kind to target the family of a sitting head of state, according to a statement late on Friday by Ken Hurwitz, head of the organization’s anticorruption efforts.
Photo: AFP
In the first case under the US Department of Justice’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, Obiang must sell a mansion in Malibu, California, a Ferrari and Michael Jackson memorabilia to raise US$20 million to go to a charity working for residents of his nation and US$10.3 million to the US also to be used to benefit Equatorial Guineans.
He also must pay US$1 million to cover the value of Michael Jackson memorabilia already removed from the US, including a Thriller jacket and crystal-covered glove, US Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell said on Friday.
The US had in 2011 filed claims against Obiang’s US-based assets worth more than US$70 million, alleging that they were the proceeds of corruption.
It said Obiang’s annual salary at the time was less than US$100,000.
The investigation significantly “breaks with the more common pattern of waiting until a corrupt family’s rule has ended before tracking down their assets,” Hurwitz said.
“In contrast, Teodorin’s family is still very much in control in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, most of whose oil and gas is pumped by US companies,” he added.
Despite wealth that has raised Equatorial Guinea’s per capita income above that of former colonizer Spain, most of the 750,000 people live in poverty.
US authorities say Obiang other officials have amassed vast wealth through extortion, embezzlement and other corruption.
Obiang said in a statement that he was pleased to end the proceedings, even though his property “was acquired with funds earned in accordance with the laws of my country.”
He said he hoped the settlement would improve relations, adding: “For the good of my country, it was important to resolve this matter and put the relationship back on firm footing.”
Obiang still is the subject of lawsuits in France and Spain.
French financial prosecutors in March filed preliminary charges of alleged money laundering connected to real estate, luxury cars, art and other property in France. It is part of a larger suit involving properties owned by leaders of Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo.
In Spain, prosecutors in 2009 opened an official investigation into alleged money laundering by Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema and his family into bank transfers and the purchase of luxury properties in Madrid, Gijon and the Canary Islands.
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