By Spy Uganda Correspondent
The foreign ministry said Teodoro Obiang Mange, 53, was sanctioned for his involvement in embezzling state funds, embezzling personal bank accounts, executing corrupt contracts and soliciting bribes.
According to the British government, Teodoro’s lavish lifestyle, as he is known, “is inconsistent with his official salary as a government minister”.
In addition to a $100 million mansion (85 million euros at current exchange rates) in Paris and a $38 million (32 million euros) private jet, he will have acquired a luxury yacht and dozens of luxury cars, including Ferraris, Bentleys and Astons. Martins and a collection of Michael Jackson items highlighted a crystal-coated glove used on the “Bad” album tour, worth $275,000.
Teodoro Obiang Mange was sentenced in February 2020, at second instance, to a three-year suspended prison sentence and an effective fine of 30 million euros to the French state for improperly acquiring large property in France with funds taken from the coffers of Equatorial Guinea.
The African country, a member of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), is headed by his father, Teodoro Obiang, 79, in power for 42 years since 1979.
According to the French judiciary, judges estimate money laundering at around 160 million euros.
In Switzerland, 25 of its large-capacity cars were confiscated and sold for €21 million which were then donated to the Equatorial Guinean social assistance program.
Others today added to the British financial sanctions list, Zimbabwean businessman Kudakwashe Regimond Tagwirei whose Treasury speculation sparked a deflationary crisis in the country, Alex Nine Saab Moran and Alvaro Enrique Pulido Vargas for abusing Venezuela’s public programs to provide food and housing to the needy. And the Iraqi Nofal Hammadi Al-Sultan, accused of corruption and embezzlement, as governor of Nineveh Governorate.
Colombian Alex Saab, considered a front for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, has been detained in Cape Verde since last year awaiting extradition to the United States, where he is suspected of laundering $350 million (€295 million) to pay for corruption. By the Venezuelan president through the US financial system.
Saab was returning from a trip to Iran on behalf of Venezuela, as a “special envoy” and with a diplomatic passport, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said they had “filled their pockets at the expense of their own citizens”.
“The UK is committed to fighting the epidemic of corruption and holding those responsible for its devastating impact to account. Corruption is draining the wealth of the poorest countries, keeping their people trapped in poverty and poisoning the wells of democracy,” he said in a statement.
The sanctions include asset freezes and travel bans to the country, measures that have previously been applied to 22 other leaders and others in countries such as Russia, South Africa, South Sudan and Latin America.
