MELISSA GIAIMO
News Assistant
The son of the president of Equatorial Guinea is suspected of corrupt handling of government funds, after recently making Malibu home. Non-governmental human rights watchdog groups question the source of funds for Teodoro Nguema Obiang’s purchase of a $35 million oceanfront mansion in February, because the house seems beyond what Obiang can afford on his salary of $5,000 per month.
According to the Sunday Times and other international newspapers, Obiang is a graduate of Pepperdine.
The University Registrar could find no record of his attendance, however.
The 15,000 square foot house, complete with its own four-hole golf course, tennis court, spa and swimming pool, is located on Suitewater Mesa off Sierra Retreat and above Pacific Coast Highway. The Mediterranean style house enjoys unobstructed views of the ocean, Malibu and distant Los Angeles from its 16-acre lot.
Obiang, minister of Agriculture and Forestry, purchased the house from exclusive Los Angeles realtor Hyland and Hilton under the name Sweetwater Malibu, LLC, a company Obiang manages, according to news reports.
Obiang could not be reached for comment.
“Equatorial Guinea is one of the poorest and most repressive regimes in the world, despite earning $3 billion in oil revenues annually,” according to a Global Witness news release.
Second to the United States, Equatorial Guinea has the highest per capita in the world ($50,200) on paper; yet, its people live on only $1 a day in reality.
Although it is the third-largest African oil supplier following Angola and Nigeria, somehow, the people of Equatorial Guinea remain impoverished. Appropriation of funds in Equatorial Guinea is treated as a state secret and occurs off the record.
“It’s an incredibly corrupt state in that [its money is] not going to anyone but the rulers and leaders,” said Dr. Robert Williams associate professor of political science.
The purchase of the Malibu mansion is typical of Obiang’s extravagant spending pattern, according to published reports. He also owns luxury homes in Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, Paris and Capetown. Two years ago, he purchased two Bentleys and a Lamborghini.
In 2004, the U.S. government discovered $700 million of Equatorial Guinea’s oil revenues stored in off-shore accounts in Riggs National Bank in Washington, D.C. Suspecting fund embezzlement, the South African government has seized Obiang’s Capetown properties.
Global Witness is encouraging the U.S. government to investigate the source of funding Obiang used to purchase the house and to enact the Initiative on Kleptocracy that the State Department began this August. This new initiative includes entry bans and seizure of assets of corrupt foreign officials.
This situation provides a “very good test case for those regulations to see if the U.S. government is serious about [fighting corruption],” Williams said.
However, United States oil interests may trump its concern for human rights.
“In the case of Equatorial Guinea, it’s a little difficult because the United States is looking to shift its oil source from the Middle East,” Dr. Robert Lloyd, associate professor of international relations and chair for the Center for International Studies and Languages said.
Should the U.S. criticize Equatorial Guinea, the U.S. could lose an important source of oil.
Some believe denouncing corruption is more important than oil.
“This is a situation where we could stand up for human rights and better government in Africa,” Williams said.
Yet others advocate an approach that does not risk the United States’ future oil dealings with Equatorial Guinea. Lloyd said the United States should simply note the country’s corruption so that future governments there can carry out their own investigation.
“The purchase of such a property would not be without questions regarding source of funds but it would be let to any future government to decide the source,” Lloyd said.
Lloyd also believes the U.S. has limited influence in reforming Equatorial Guinea and that it should save that influence for more important corruption issues, such as torture or judicial corruption.
Williams predicts that Malibu community will not be happy to learn about Obiang’s purchase.
“When this becomes a little more public there will be probably a little bit of pressure,” Williams said. “People will not be happy to see a dictator’s son make a purchase [in Malibu].”
He urges residents to demand that real estate agents not deal in corrupt transactions by publicizing Obiang’s purchase and writing letters to Congress and the White House.
11-16-2006
