“This is the first time I have been to your country but it will definitely not be the last. You have so many development projects going on that I will almost certainly have to come back,” Blatter said” (Embassy of Equatorial Guinea, 2010).
When Sepp Blatter have seen development he have seen some brown-envelopes and adjustments made for the FIFA organizations and the other football bodies that have helped enrichen that organization and not develop the country that FIFA is in. If it was so then the stadiums of Brazil would be used for something else than a Bus-Park. But this here is not about the use of FIFA, but his visit surely gives the prospect of how the society is. As this country I will be focused on have had a tightknit organization built around the Executive and the Party he is running.
“Cabinet Ministers and public servants in Equatorial Guinea are by the law allowed to owe [sic] companies that , in consortium with a foreign company, can bid the government contracts and should the company be successful, then what percentage of the total cost of the contract the company gets, will depend on the terms negotiated between the parties. But, in any event, it means that a cabinet minister ends up with a sizeable part of the contract price in his bank account” – Teodorin Nguema Obiang Mangue
I will today show a little levels of corruption from the grand-family of the longest staying President on the African Continent per today. This President have just recently won yet another election with over 90% and secured a new term in the country he has run since a coup d’état in 1979. About the way President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasongo, who have filtered the oil-rich monies to himself and family over the years and used government funds on expensive things for himself or his son Teodorin Obiang who at some point even dated the American rapper EVE. But, hey take a look!
“According to the documents from the Justice Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Teodorin, who earns a few thousand dollars a month as a minister in his father’s government, transferred about $75 million into U.S. banks between 2005 and 2007, via wire transfers processed by Bank of America, Wachovia, UBS, Union Bank of California and First American Trust” (Global Witness, 2009).
In 2011 this was the official salary of Teodorin Obiang as Ministry of Forestry:
“His official salary today is approximately $6,799 per month, or less than $100,000 per year, according to the official E.G. sources” (United States District Court for the Central District of California, 2011).
This is just the beginning and shows to what extent that Equatorial Guinean President and his son have bought with the government funds. This is money earned through the exporting crude-oil and the dividends from it. The Government gets the earnings with the ELF contracts for instance. So there is money to spend of the President as the oil-money could be used for personal affairs it seems. Not that it is justified and therefore it has even cause controversy in the United States as his son are leaving in Los Angeles.
What spending had Teodorin Obiang done in Los Angeles:
“The Defendants in rem, obtained through the abuse of public office and illegally laundered through the abuse of financial institutions and businesses in the United States, are believed to be currently located within the Central District of California” (…)”The Defendants White Crystal-Covered “Bad Tour” Glove and miscellaneous other Michael Jackson memorabilia” (…)” These items are believed to be located at the defendant real property located on Sweetwater, Mesa Road, California” (…)”The Defendant, 2011 Ferrari is described as followed: One 2011 Ferrari 599 GTO” (…)”The defendant 2011 Ferrari is titled in the name of Teodoro Nguema Obiang and is believed to be located at the Sweetwater property” (…)”The 2004 PSI Report revealed that, from at least 1995 to 2004, the Government of E.G. directed that payments from the oil companies be made into accounts at Riggs National Bank in Washington D.C. According to the PSI Report, aggregate deposits to E.G. Government accounts totaled hundreds of millions dollars at a time and were so large that by 2003, the E.G. portfolio had become the bank’s largest single costumer relationship, with balances and outstanding loans that together approached $700 million. The PSI Report concluded that Riggs Bank “turned a blind eye to evidence (,) suggesting the bank was handling the proceeds of foreign corruption” (…)”In March 2001, Nguema bought a new 2001 Bentley automobile in Beverly Hills, California, paying for it with a personal check for $360,000, drawn on his Riggs Bank account. A few months later, he brought a second 2001 Bentley, from the same dealership in Beverly Hills, for which he paid $57,500 in cash and $228,000 by personal check drawn on the same account. In 2001, at the age of 33, he also bought a $6,5 million house on the Antelo Road in Bel Air” (…)”For example, he spent millions of dollars to buy dozens of sports cars and luxury vehicles. These included, amongst others, 24 cars with a total declared value of $9.68 million that he stored at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angles until November 2010, when he shipped them, along with $400,000 worth of motorcycles, to France. These cars included a $ 2 million Maserati, two Bugatti Veyron sports cars for which he paid $ 2 million Maserati and $ 1.3 million respectively, eight Ferraris (including the defendant 2011 Ferrari), seven Rolls Royces, five Bentleys, four Mercedes, A Porsche, two Lamborghinis, and an Aston Martin” (United States District Court for the Central District of California, 2011).
Here I have just showed how much monies have been moved to a Bank Accounts over a Period which is in the amount of 700 Million Dollars and can only be seen as grand amount of monies taken from Equatorial Guinea to be used for personal affairs in United States. As we later see the amounts spent on cars and the sophisticated cars and size of the car park that is filled with Bentleys, Ferraris, Aston Martin, Bugatti Veyron, Rolls Roycs and even a Maserati. That shows the level of spending and the ignorant value of the government funds, as spending on a crystal-white Michael Jackson glove together with a house in Bel Air and the one in Sweetwater estate. But this is not it all, sadly the Obiang family spending in the US is staggering.
If you think that Teodoro and Teodorin were done in this time period to spend money in the United States, they did more!
“In June 2005, Nguema purchased two 50-foot, high-performance racing boats in Ft. Myers, Florida, for a total of over $ 2 million” (…)”Between April and June 2006, Nguema’s luxery expenditures included a combined total of $68 million on just two assets; the defendant Malibu mansion, for which the purchase price was $ 30 million, and a Gulfstream G-V private jet, which cost over $38 million” (…)”In a single month in 2004, for example, he spent over $80,000 at Gucci and over $50,000 at Dolce and Gabbana in a shopping spree in the United States” (…)”From June 2010 through June 2011, Nguema spent a total of approximately $3.2 million on various items of Michael Jackson memorabilia, including $275,000 for the defendant “Bad Tour” glove, $80,000 for a pair of crystal-covered socks, $140,000 for a jacket and shirt, and $245,000 for a basketball signed by Michael Jackson and basketball star Michael Jordan” (…)”Nguema created companies in various names, including “Beautiful Vision, Inc” and “Unlimited Horizon Inc.,” and opened bank accounts in the United States in the name of those companies. Nguema also wired transferred funds to bank accounts controlled by intermediaries, who then used the money to pay for his personal expenses, or transferred money from those accounts t accounts in the names of the corporations he formed, and then used the corporate accounts to pay his personal expenses” (United States District Court for the Central District of California, 2011).
How did Teoderin buy the Michael Jackson Memorabilia?
“In August 2010, an intermediary registered Nguema to bid in a live auction of celebrity memorabilia (called the “Legends” auctions) taking place on October 9, 2010, in Macau, China (October 8, 2010, in California). The intermediary advised the auction house by email to “Please make sure that [Nguema’s] name does not appear anywhere, he should be invisible,” and to “please make sure that where a name needs to be, my name is there. This is very important” (…)”The auction house prepared two invoices in the same name of the intermediary, totaling $1,398,062.50, using the address of the Sweetwater property” (…)”When one of Nguema’s assistants received the invoices, she instructed the auction house to revise the invoices to indicate that the purchases were being billed to “Amadeo Oluy, Malabo, Guinea Equatorial-“. These items were shipped to E.G.” (…)”In December 2010, another function of celebrity memorabilia was held by the same auction house, this time in Beverly Hills, California. An intermediary came to the auction on Nguema’s behalf and successfully bid in the defendant white crystal-covered “Bad Tour”glove and other defendant items listen in Attachment A-1, attached hereto. The total cost of these items was $872,125.00” (…)”On January 31, 2011, Nguema caused $872,112.00 to be wire transferred from an account in the name of Eloba Construction, S.A., Equatorial Guinea to an account at American Business Bank in Los Angles in the name of the auction house, Julien Entertainment, to pay for the items purchased at the December 2010 auction. This items was subsequently packed for shipment and delivered to the defendant Sweetwater property” (…)”On March 29, 2011, an employee of the auction house sent her employer a email regarding the invoices for the items purchased on behalf of Nguema, asking,
I assume I need to rewrite the invoices in the same fashion as I’ve done in prior sales? (putting lots on one page, adding catalog page numbers and changing the Buyer’s name” (…)”In June 2011, Nguema again used an intermediary bid on more Michael Jackson memorabilia at another “Music Icons” auction. The intermediary successfully bid on the items costing a total of $379,692.00 sent by “Oluy Amadeo” in Equatorial Guinea to the bank account of the auction house at American Business Bank in Los Angles, California. The items purchased by Nguema at the June 2011” (United States District Court for the Central District of California, 2011).
As you can see the son of President Teodoro Obiang really have a thing for the memorabilia of the late Michael Jackson and have spent a fortune on it. That shows where monies go to. So it is not only the properties, but all from signed posters, gloves, statues and bags; all kind of former fandom equipment and limited editions that are signed by Michael Jackson and used by him in his lifetime.
Here is an letter from CSO’s on the case:
“Mr. Nguema’s attorneys, Juan P. Morillo and Tomislav Joksimovic, at the time of Clifford Chance US LLP, formally “agreed, and…so advised [their] client, that none of [Mr. Nguema’s] assets in the United States [would] be moved or otherwise made unavailable until…the government has had an opportunity to consider any evidence presented [by Mr. Nguema’s counsel]”.4” (…)”About three weeks later, Mr. Lyons informed Ms. Hudson “that the items of Michael Jackson memorabilia named as defendants in the complaint [were] no longer in the United States.”7 Her October 27, 2011 formal demand that Mr. Nguema return the Michael Jackson memorabilia to Government representatives in the United States went unheeded. Indeed, Mr. Nguema’s contempt for his legal obligations and the commitments made by his representatives were amply illustrated by his decision some time later to flaunt the Michael Jackson memorabilia in a highly publicized exhibition in Equatorial Guinea” (…)”According to the same information received, Mr Roberto Berardi had found out early 2013 about the asset forfeiture action by the United States Department of Justice against the US-based properties that his business partner had purchased by using accounts in Equatorial Guinea banks in the name of Eloba Construccion. Mr Roberto Berardi had subsequently raised the issue with his partner Mr Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mangue. There are reasons to believe that Mr Roberto Berardi could be a very damaging witness in the US investigation and was therefore arrested and imprisoned” (…)”Ensures that Mr. Nguema and/or his family does not, and does not appear to, retain de facto control over disposition of any funds or other benefits that are intended to be, or may be, allocated to the benefit of the victims of the alleged corrupt practices, namely, the people of Equatorial Guinea” (Apdhe, Open Society Justice Initiative, EGJustice and Sherpa, 2014).
This here is the picture of how the Government of Equatorial Guinea is spending their monies on the family of the dictator instead of building infrastructure, health-care and the education. There is viable evidence of fraud and embezzlement as the government funds getting send directly from Equatorial Guinea to American banks used on whatever luxuries that Teodorin Obiang wants or needs in his collections. Either if it is a fancy car or something from Michael Jackson memorabilia. That proves to what extent this family eats the government funds and doesn’t care how it looks. The country is nearly never in the headlines, last real time before the recent elections was because of the African Cup of Nation that was held there and even made Sepp Blatter visit the country from his hectic office days in Switzerland.
You can think about the information and what signal it really sends. What this means for the government of Equatorial Guinea that the President Obiang can stay in power since 1970s and over 30 years. The viable price of that is the embezzlement and the grand-corruption. Together with the made corporations to move the embezzled money from the Nation to other places like Los Angeles, California. Peace.
Reference:
Apdhe, Open Society Justice Initiative, EGJustice and Sherpa – ‘Proposed Settlement in US v. One White Crystal-Covered “Bad Tour” Glove and Other Michael Jackson Memorabilia; Real Property Located on Sweetwater Mesa Road in Malibu, California; One 2011 Ferrari 599 GTO; and US v. One Gulfstream G-V Jet Aircraft Displaying Tail Number VPCES, Its Tools and Appurtenances (collectively, the “Case”)’ (05.08.2014) letter to Eric H. Holder Jr. Attorney General in U.S. Department of Justice.
Embassy of Equatorial Guinea – ‘FIFA PRESIDENT PRAISES DEVELOPMENT IN EQUATORIAL GUINEADURING VISIT’ (08.06.2010)
Global Witness – ‘Secret documents reveal multi-million dollar shopping spree by Africandictator’s son; US authorities fail to act on evidence of corruption’ (17.11.2009)
United States District Court for the Central District of California – United States of America V. One White Crystal-Covered “Bad Tour” Glove and Other Michael Jackson Memorabilia; Real Property Located on Sweetwater Mesa Road in Malibu, California; one 2011 Ferrari 599 GTO – Case of Forfeiture in REM. (13 October 2011).
MinBane 