News » Multi-Million Dollar Confiscations Don’t Make a Dent in This Kleptocrat’s Fortunes

Multi-Million Dollar Confiscations Don’t Make a Dent in This Kleptocrat’s Fortunes

July 10, 2019

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Teddy Obiang holds a government job in Equatorial Guinea, earning about $100,000 per year. His father has been the president of that impoverished nation since 1979. In 2003, Obiang senior took control of the national treasury “to prevent civil servants from being tempted to engage in corrupt practices,” but Teddy didn’t get the message, and worse yet, somehow gained access to those resources. In 2014, the U.S. Dept. Of Justice brought a forfeiture action against him under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, and he was forced to sell a $30 million mansion in Malibu and donate the money to a charity to help the people of his country. Undaunted, Teddy moved to Geneva, where the Swiss seized his collection of expensive cars, and then to Paris, where a 2017 conviction for money laundering and embezzlement resulted in a suspended sentence and seizure of more than $100 million assets including a 100-room mansion and another collection of cars. Meanwhile, the Swiss fleet has been scheduled for auction this coming September. The state auctioneer for Geneva, will conduct the proceedings. Cars on offer include a Lamborghini Veneno ($5 million), Ferrari – La Ferrari ($2.6 million), a McLaren P1 ($1.5 million), and a Bugatti Veyron 16.4 ($700,000). Last year Brazilian police confiscated luxury watches and cash from the hapless Obiang after his private plane landed near São Paulo. They took about $1.5 million cash, and watches worth around $15 million, but according to some reports he was able to negotiate return of the watches.

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