By Charlotte Webster-
A French court has handed the son of Equatorial Guinea’s president a suspended sentence of three years in prison after being found guilty of embezzling millions in public money.
Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, the country’s second vice president, faced trial after spending and investing millions of dollars in France with funds allegedly linked to corruption, embezzlement and extortion in his African nation.
He was handed a suspended fine of 30 million euros ($35 million), and the court ordered that all the goods seized during the investigation should remain confiscated.
Obiang was charged with laundering an exponential of money in France to fund a lavish lifestyle. It is always baffling when news like this breaks out. The son of any president in the world is expected to be financially secure, and capable of relying on the contacts and influence of their presidential parent to sustain a comfortable life. Mangue should not have needed to stoop this low in order to amss alot of money because was in a convenient position to be financially content. The sentence is an embarassment to the president of Equatorial Guinea, a tough sentence awaits him in jail.
Also under investigation wereThe families of late Gabonese leader Omar Bongo ,and the Republic of Congo’s President Denis Sassou Nguesso, both of whomm are also under investigation for embezzlement in cases spearheaded by anti-corruption NGOs.
Teodorin Obiang is the son of Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who seized power from his uncle, Francisco Macias Nguema, in 1979.
He became the agriculture and forestries minister in 1997, before being promoted further to vice-president in 2012.
Obiang who attended a school in Normandy specialising in educating foreign leaders’ children, bought a six-storey mansion near Paris’s exclusive Champs Elysées avenue, a fleet of luxury cars, artworks and other assets, allegedly spending 1,000 times his official annual salary.
The conicted presidents son also for suits from Paris’s top tailors with suitcases full of cash.
Most of the purchases he made were done through Somagui Forestal- a forestry company that prosecutors dubbed “an empty shell used solely to channel public money”.
In 2011 investigators raided the Teodorin Obiang’s Paris residence, and seized a range of cars including Bugattis, Ferraris, a Rolls-Royce Phantom and other cars.
They also seized the 4,000m property worth 107 million euros which boasts a hammam, a disco and gold-plated taps, the following year.
Equatorial Guinea’s government has appealed to the International Court of Justice.
The Hague-based court gave an interim ruling in December 2016 , forbiding France from confiscating or auctioning the property off until its status has been decided.
The defence’s accusation that France is meddling in the affairs of another country won support from a surprising source during the trial.
Former British mercenary Simon Mann, who led a failed coup attempt against Obiang Nguema in 2004, testified on behalf of the government, and blamed US billionaire George Soros for orchestrating the allegation.
Teodorin Obiang, also faces another corruption case in Switzerland. He is also head of broadcaster Asonga, and plays a leading role in the Associaion of the Sons of Obiang- an organisation commited to the promotion of the family affairs, especially that of his father. This court ruling will not do his father or the family any favours, but really may have brought them to disrepute.