Yet three-quarters of Equato-guineans live below the poverty line. The country is ruled by a small, repressive elite centred
around President Teodoro Obiang. President Obiang uses the country’s oil wealth
to enrich himself and his family, while violently suppressing opposition and
ignoring the suffering of his people.
His regime has had help from the international financial
system. As
early as 2003 Global Witness helped to expose how Obiang and his associates
had stashed millions of dollars in accounts at the prestigious Riggs bank in
Washington, DC. Riggs was subsequently investigated by a Senate committee investigation for
banking for corrupt dictators including Obiang and Chile’s Augusto Pinochet,
and the bank was sold off at a huge discount.
Our later investigations have exposed how the President’s
son and government minister, Teodorin Obiang, has spent millions of dollars
sustaining a playboy lifestyle in Europe and the U.S. while earning a
government salary of only a few thousand dollars a month.
Teodorin used American lawyers and anonymously owned shell
companies in the United States to disguise his identity and deposit over $100
million into American banks. He used the money to buy a $30 million Malibu mansion,
a $38 million private jet, and a crystal-studded glove worn by Michael Jackson.
In 2011, Global Witness uncovered Teodorin’s plans to build a $380 million
yacht, which would have cost approximately three times his country’s health and
education budgets combined.
The case of Equatorial Guinea highlights the complicity of
western financial institutions in propping up corrupt regimes. Global Witness is
campaigning for legislation that requires companies to reveal their true
‘beneficial’ owners; the UK and the EU have signed up, and we’re now pushing
for the U.S. to follow suit. Such measures would make it much harder for corrupt
dictators like Obiang to move their illicit gains overseas and deprive needy
citizens of the benefits of their resource wealth.
Corruption & Money LaunderingReport
Equatorial GuineaPress Release
Anonymous CompaniesReport
Corruption & Money LaunderingCampaign