14 Nov 2011

Us Accuses Equatorial Guinea’s Minister of Corruption

The government of the United States has filed civil complaints requesting the forfeiture of $70 million in assets owned by Teodorin Nguema Obiang Mangue (pictured here), a minister in Equatorial Guinea and son of the country’s President.

According to the forfeiture complaints, filed in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., Teodorin Obiang’s assets originate from misappropriation and theft of public resources from his country. They are founded on lenghty investigations that have found evidence of bank transfers from Mr. Obiang to US banks amounting to $75 million between 2005 and 2007.

This action by the US administration follows a similar one taken by France last month, when it decided to seize 11 luxury cars belonging to Mr. Obiang. Another request for asset forfeiture is under analysis by a court judge in Spain.

Read the full article US government seeks $70M from African official on hosted.ap.org. The pictured featured above is from bbc.co.uk and is credited to Global Witness.