Financial Transparency Coalition

This week, the lawyers of Teodoro Nguema Obiang, the son of Equatorial Guinea’s longtime President, released a statement calling the Obama administration’s seizure of $71 million worth of assets a “character assassination.” In October of last year the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) unsealed an asset forfeiture claim against some of Obiang’s U.S. assets, including a $38 million Gulfstream private jet, a $35 million Malibu mansion, a Ferrari, and dozens of pieces of memorabilia of pop singer none other than Michael Jackson, which are worth about $2 million. Authorites came to Obiang’s home and seized much of these items, although...

WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity welcomed efforts by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), to seize over $70.8 million in corrupt wealth from Teodorin Obiang, the infamous son of the President of Equatorial Guinea.

Teodoro Nguema Obiang has controlled Equatorial Guinea since he executed his uncle in a bloody coup d’état in 1979. Equatorial Guinea is a country in Middle Africa on the coast. It is one of the smallest and wealthiest countries in the continent, in large part because it holds Africa’s largest oil reserves. Yet the wealth is extremely concentrated in the hands of the government and the ruling elite. As a result over 75% of the population lives below $2 per day, 35% of its citizens do not live past the age of 40, and nearly 60% do...

WASHINGTON, DC – The past twenty-four hours has seen the publication of two reports and the disclosure of an asset forfeiture complaint which, collectively, lay bare the size and seriousness of a global money laundering epidemic—underscoring the need for better incorporation transparency measures.