The son of the Equatorial Guinea president is challenging the Justice Department’s attempts to seize $70.8 million in assets, saying in court that they were not obtained illegally through corrupt funds taken from the country.
On Monday, attorneys for Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, who is the minister of forestry and agriculture and the son of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, filed a motion to dismiss the seizure and forfeit the case, according to the Blog of Legal Times.
In separate complaints filed in October in the Central District of California and the District of Columbia, the prosecution alleges that Nguema used intermediaries and corporate entities to acquire U.S. assets.
Those assets include $1.8 million worth of Michael Jackson memorabilia, a $38.5 million Gulfstream jet, a $30 million house in Malibu, Calif., and a $530,000 Ferrari. The Justice Department brought the suit under its Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative. Lanny Breuer, chief of the DOJ Criminal Division, emphasized in an October statement the U.S. ultimately aims to repatriate the funds to citizens of Equatorial Guinea.
On an annual government salary of $100,000, Nguema was able to amass a fortune of more than $100 million.
Juan Morillo with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, one of the minister’s attorneys, wrote in the filing Monday that this forfeiture is “unprecedented and unfounded.”
“The Government has never previously brought a forfeiture case based on alleged violations of foreign law against the assest of a sitting foreign government official in good standing in his country, who has not been charged or convicted of a criminal offense in his country,” Morillo writes.
The lawyers write that Nguema acquired these assets through funds from private construction and timber companies.
The filing states that seizure will “infringe Equatorial Guinea’s sovereign right to create, interpret, and enforce its own laws and will significantly hinder the existing cooperative, friendly relationship between the United States and Equatorial Guinea.”
In February, watchdog group Global Witness wrote a piece detailing its concerns with Nguema’s spending.
Breuer in October said: “Through our Kleptocracy Initiative, we are sending the message loud and clear: the United States will not be a hiding place for the ill-gotten riches of the world’s corrupt leaders.”
Juan Morillo is right that the forfeiture is unprecedented. But this is because the US is now finally starting to implement an effective anti-corruption strategy. He should get used to the way things are now starting to happen. And instead of carping about it, he should congratulate the DoJ for its efforts. As for his description of Teodorin Obiang – he points to his good standing in Equatorial Guinea, and refers to Equatorial Guinean sovereignty. Who does he think holds Equatorial Guinean sovereignty – the kelptocratic elite of the country who seized power in a violent coup and who win “elections” with 99% of the vote? I would recommend he listens to the views of the 70% of the EG population who continue to live on a dollar a day, despite the fact that the per capita income of the country has reached that of Denmark, before making pronouncements on such matters. Given Teodorin is Minister of Forestry, one had to wonder whether there are conflict of interest issues to explain over his alleged forests derived fortune! The US should be congratulated, and it is high time other countries also moved to deny “shopping territory” to the world’s Kleptocrats. For further reading of the shopping antics of Teodorin, refer to: http://www.globalwitness.org/library/secret-life-shopaholic-how-african-dictators-playboy-son-went-multi-million-dollar-shopping