Among the objects sold at an auction on January 20, 2023 in Drouot, were a pair of porcelain vases with polychrome decoration, armchairs stamped “Jacob Frères rue Meslée” and the mark of the Château de Fontainebleau, and a pair of cabinets attributed to Adam Weisweiler. famous 18th century cabinetmakermy century.
This luxury piece of furniture, seized by French justice inside an opulent building on Avenue Foch, in the 16th century.my district of Paris, belonged to Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue. The one everyone nicknames “Teodorín” is the eldest son of Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, president of Equatorial Guinea since 1979.
The auction of “Teodorin’s” “luxury tangible personal property” allowed the French State to recover 6.1 million euros. “The entire amount was transferred to the Ministry of Economy and Finance”ensures the Agency for the Management and Recovery of Seized and Confiscated Assets (Agrasc), a public establishment that manages the sums seized within the framework of criminal proceedings. This sum remains blocked today, waiting to be returned, as provided by law, to the Equatoguinean population through NGOs or associations.
“Teodorín” Obiang, whose lawyer did not want to respond to the WorldHe has always led a luxurious lifestyle. This is partly detailed in a ruling by the Paris Court of Appeal of February 10, 2020, an 80-page document that the world He was able to consult.
Public money misused
We find ourselves there scrambled “the payment, for an amount of around 600,000 euros, for art objects to the Didier Aaron company”, “the liquidation, from 2005 to 2011, of jewelry for a total amount exceeding 4.5 million euros”, “the financing of seven luxury cars for an amount greater than 7 million euros”or even “the payment of stays at the Crillon Hotel for an amount exceeding 450,000 euros.”
In July 2021, after fourteen years of proceedings in the so-called “ill-gotten gains” affair, “Teodorin” Obiang was definitively sentenced by France to three years in prison and a fine of 30 million euros for “Money laundering, abuse of corporate assets and embezzlement of public funds”.
In this case opened after a complaint filed in 2007 by the NGOs Sherpa and Transparency International, the magistrates want to know if the French assets of several African leaders (Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, etc.) were constituted with embezzled public money.
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