Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue is Equatorial Guinea's minister of agriculture and forestry with an official salary of somewhere between $5,000 and $70,000 (reports we've seen have varied pretty widely). He's also the son of long-time dictator Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and something of a Malibu playboy who's dated rapper Eve. And now the US government is coming after his $35 million mansion, several ridiculous luxury cars, and a white crystal-studded Michael Jackson Bad tour glove.
Back in 2006, Forbes reported that Obiang's $35 million purchase of a house at 3620 Sweetwater Mesa Rd. in Malibu was the year's sixth highest sale. Obiang lived in a suite at the Beverly Wilshire while attending Pepperdine and he liked Eve so much that he made her president, treasurer, and chief financial officer of one of his shell companies.
Meanwhile torture is widespread in Equatorial Guinea, Africa's fourth largest exporter of oil, according to a May New York Times article, and the country has made the exclusive "Worst of the Worst" list of nine most repressive nations, as ranked by watchdog group Freedom House. The group said EQ's government is "a highly corrupt regime with one of the worst human rights records in Africa."
According to Foreign Policy, the US Justice Department and ICE have been investigating Obiang "on suspicion of laundering funds into the United States and alleged 'extortion, theft of public funds, or other corrupt conduct' back at home." Now the US government has filed notice that there's a lawsuit pending that involves Obiang's Sweetwater Mesa house, his Gulfstream G-V jet, a Bugatti, a Lamborghini, three Rolls Royces, a Ferrari, a Bentley, and his white crystal-studded Michael Jackson Bad tour glove.
Obiang doesn't come to the US often and his Bugattis and Rollses have all left the country, according to FP. The magazine says that "the filing does not constitute a lien on his property but makes it exceedingly difficult for him to sell his estate (or his Michael Jackson memorabilia, if he hasn't taken it back to Equatorial Guinea)." But who would sell that glove anyway?
According to Forbes, Obiang's 15,000 square foot house comes with a four hole golf course, a tennis court, and multiple pools. Redfin says it has six bedrooms and eight bathrooms and was built in 1991.
· Hold That Car [Foreign Policy]
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