US eyes looted assets of dictator's playboy son

Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, Minister for Agriculture and Forestry in Equatorial Guinea. Photo / Supplied

It was a glorious autumn morning in Malibu yesterday. But the owner of 3620 Sweetwater Mesa Rd, high above the exclusive community's famous Surfrider beach, was unable to enjoy his hilltop property's untrammelled views of the sun-drenched Pacific.

Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, the 41-year-old son of Equatorial Guinea's autocratic President, was not at home. Security gates guarded a long, tree-lined drive which meandered past first a 20-car garage, then a tennis court and then a four-hole private golf course.

In the distance stood the 1393sq m main residence, which has eight bathrooms, the same number of fireplaces, a large swimming pool and at least six walk-in wardrobes.

Obiang purchased the 4.8ha estate for US$31 million in 2004, telling Los Angeles estate agent Neal Baddin that he would be paying with cash.

At the time, no one thought to ask the mysterious foreigner how he'd laid his hands on such a vast fortune. If Baddin had done some digging, he would have discovered that his client's only legitimate source of income was his salary as "Forestry Minister" in his father's Government. It currently pays US$6800 ($8500) a month.

Yesterday, the United States Justice Department reached its own conclusions about Obiang's wealth. The Malibu home, a half-hour's drive from Hollywood, was among US$70 million of assets seized by prosecutors, who said Obiang plundered more than US$100 million from his homeland through "extortion, misappropriation, embezzlement, or theft of public funds".

Lawsuits in Los Angeles and Washington DC pledged to recover stolen funds "for the benefit of the people of the country from which they are taken". Although Equatorial Guinea's vast oil resources give it Africa's highest per-capita income, it is also fantastically corrupt. In recent years, the nation's political elite has accrued vast wealth. But more than 70 per cent of the population earns less than the United Nations poverty threshold of US$2 a day.

Obiang's 69-year-old father, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, seized power in a 1979 coup, but despite becoming one of the world's richest men, has failed to provide water or electricity to much of the country.

As the President's heir-apparent, Obiang jnr's spending habits seem extraordinary even by the standards of African dictators.

Among items seized by the United States authorities are a US$38 million Gulfstream jet, a US$530,000 Ferrari 599 GTO, and US$3.2 million of bejewelled Michael Jackson memorabilia, including a crystal-encrusted glove from the singer's 1987 Bad tour purchased for US$300,000.

The President's son once spent US$60,000 on rugs, US$58,000 on a home theatre and US$1784 on a single pair of wine glasses for the Malibu property. He had 24 luxury cars, including Maserati, Ferrari, Porsche, Rolls-Royce and Bugatti, which he paid to store in a garage at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

"While his people struggled, he lived the high life," US assistant Attorney-General, Lanny Breuer, said. "We are sending the message loud and clear: the US will not be a hiding place for the ill-gotten riches of the world's corrupt leaders."

The US decision to take action follows years of pressure from human rights groups concerned by the kleptocratic habits of Equatorial Guinea's elite. Obiang is accused of taking cash bribes from logging companies. He also owns a timber company which operates in the forests his ministry is supposed to regulate.

Despite the pressure, previous US Administrations have turned a blind eye to Obiang's activities, hoping perhaps to ensure that American companies continue to be given access to the small West African country's lucrative oilfields, where ExxonMobil has been operating since 1994.

A Justice Department investigation found that Obiang was able to transfer US$75 million to the US between 2005 and 2007, without the authorities managing to prevent it. In one incident, he walked into a high-street bank, dropped US$1 million in shrink-wrapped US$100 bills on the counter, and was promptly allowed to open an account.

This week's legal action comes shortly after the Obama White House announced that its Justice Department was establishing a "Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative" to recover the proceeds of foreign corruption laundered through the US.

"This should keep suspected kleptocrats with assets in the US awake at night," said Robert Palmer, a spokesman for the pressure group Global Witness, which first revealed the existence of Obiang's Malibu mansion. He hopes the Administration will now actively seek to stop deposed dictators of the Arab Spring salting money across the Atlantic.

Meanwhile, in February, Foreign Policy magazine revealed that Obiang had settled a dozen civil lawsuits filed by staff working at his property in Malibu.

They complained of being cheated out of salaries and overtime wages, and being forced to source prostitutes, Playboy bunnies, drugs and even tigers for parties held at the estate.

- INDEPENDENT