Britain on Thursday sanctioned the son of Equatorial Guinea’s president for misappropriating millions of dollars which London said was spent on luxury mansions, private jets and a $275,000 glove worn by Michael Jackson.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Teodoro Obiang Mangue, who is also vice president of Equatorial Guinea, had participated in “corrupt contracting arrangements and soliciting bribes, to fund a lavish lifestyle inconsistent with his official salary as a government minister.”
Sanctions announced by London include asset freezes and a travel ban. Obiang is, however, not new to a global crackdown on his humongous wealth. In 2016, a collection of luxury cars belonging to the 53-year-old politician were confiscated by Swiss authorities following a corruption probe.
The supercars were auctioned off in 2019 — racking up millions of dollars in sales. In 2017, Obiang was convicted for corruption by a French court and handed a three-year suspended jail term after prosecutors accused him of embezzlement of public funds and money laundering.
Obiang’s lavish spending was again spotlighted in 2018 after Brazilian police seized millions of dollars in cash, including a set of luxury watches from a delegation traveling with the wealthy Central African ruler following a search on their private aircraft in Sao Paulo.
