Last week, the son and heir-apparent to the president of Equatorial Guinea agreed to give up $34 million in assets as part of a settlement with the U.S. government over corruption claims. This was the latest attack by the Department of Justice’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative has collected about $600 million out of the $1.2 billion pursued from 15 cases against current or former officials and businessmen.
The government accused Second Vice President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mangue of amassing assets worth $300 million on an annual salary of less than $100,000.
He has agreed to sell a Malibu mansion, a Ferrari and six life-size Michael Jackson statues. He gets to keep a Gulfstream jet, a luxury boat and most of his collection of Michael Jackson memorabilia, including the crystal-encrusted glove from the late singer’s ‘Bad’ tour (At least for now). If you want to see an incredible collection of Michael Jackson memorabilia, you can find it at the Equatoguinean Cultural Center in Malabo.
Mr. Obiang’s father is still in power, so the government of Equatorial Guinea didn’t cooperate with the U.S. government’s investigation. There are obvious signs of corruption, but the US government faced an uphill battle trying to trace Mr. Obiang’s US based assets back to corruption in his native country.
The main link was the anti-Money laundering failures of Riggs Bank. Starting in the mid-1990s, Riggs Bank opened dozens of accounts for the government of Equatorial Guinea, as well as senior government officials. By 2003 those accounts were worth almost $700 million.
Sources:
- Kleptocrats hiding funds in US warned ‘we will find you’
- When U.S. Targets Foreign Leaders for Corruption, Recovering Loot Is a Challenge
- Department of Justice Seeks to Recover More Than $70.8 Million in Proceeds of Corruption from Government Minister of Equatorial Guinea
- Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative, a partnership of the World Bank and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
- Money Laundering and Foreign Corruption: Enforcement and Effectiveness of the PATRIOT Act – A Case Study Involving Riggs Bank (.pdf)