French court upholds guilty verdict on fraud charges for Equatorial Guinea's VP
France's highest appeal court on Wednesday upheld a guilty verdict against the son of Equatorial Guinea's president for embezzlement, paving the way for the potential return of tens of millions of dollars to the country's people.
Teodoro Obiang Mangue, who is also the vice president of the
Gulf of Guinea nation, was handed a three-year suspended sentence and a 30
million euro ($33 million) fine at the end of his trial in absentia in 2020.
Luxury assets seized in France during the investigation were ordered to be
confiscated.
Transparency International, which was party to the case, has
estimated that the seized goods, which include a mansion in the heart of the
French capital, are worth around 150 million euros.
Obiang has always denied any wrongdoing and argued that
French courts had no right to rule on his assets, but the Cour de Cassation
rejected his appeal.
The residence at the centre of the dispute is a luxury
residence on Avenue Foch in Paris -- a grand, sweeping road near the Arc de
Triomphe. It has 101 rooms, a gym, a hair-dressing studio and a disco with a
cinema screen.
Now that there can be no more appeals in this case, the
assets are set to be put on sale under a new French law which stipulates that
the money, instead of going to the French state's coffers, should go back to
Equatorial Guinea.
That could be done via local or international NGOs or
France's development aid fund.
Obiang's father, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo,
has ruled Equatorial Guinea since taking power in a coup in 1979, 11 years
after independence from Spain.
Exploitation of the country's oil reserves over the past few
decades has greatly increased the size of its economy. More than 76% of the
population, however, continue to live in poverty, according to World Bank
figures.
Other cases of alleged misappropriation of funds by foreign
officials are lined up in France and could potentially also end up with
decisions to return money to the affected populations.
A French court has found the exiled uncle of Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad, Rifaat al-Assad, guilty of acquiring millions of
euros worth of French property using funds diverted from the Syrian state. An
appeal is still pending in that case. He has denied any wrongdoing.
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