Equatorial Guinea Vice President Forfeits Mansion to Save Michael Jackson Memorabilia Collection

Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue Obiang.
Photo: Via Facebook.

Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue Obiang, the son of Equatorial Guinea’s longtime president Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, will give up his $35 million mansion in Malibu and a Ferrari—acquired with a $300 million fortune he allegedly amassed by accepting bribes and embezzling funds while serving in his father’s cabinet, where his title is “second vice president”—in order to keep his collection of Michael Jackson memorabilia.

“Through relentless embezzlement and extortion, Vice President Nguema Obiang shamelessly looted his government and shook down businesses in his country to support his lavish lifestyle, while many of his fellow citizens lived in extreme poverty,” Leslie R. Caldwell, the US Assistant Attorney General, said in statement. “After raking in millions in bribes and kickbacks, Nguema Obiang embarked on a corruption-fueled spending spree in the United States.”

The president’s son, who goes by the nickname Teodorín, will forfeit approximately $30 million in property to the US Department of Justice, not even half of the $74 million sum sought by federal prosecutors, Courthouse News reports. He also has acknowledged no wrongdoing in the case and denies charges of corruption.

“I am pleased to be able to end this long and costly ordeal,” Teodorín wrote in a Facebook post “I agreed to settle this case despite the fact that the U.S. federal courts had consistently found that the Department of Justice lacked probable cause to seize my property.”

While he will have to give up his Ferrari, Teodorín won’t exactly be grounded. Though he never went through with the $380 million mega-yacht he commissioned plans for, according to Foreign Policy, he will still benefit from the use of his Gulfstream Jet. (Although if he attempts to enter the US aboard it, it will be seized.) And, of course, he also gets to keep his $1 million collection of Michael Jackson memorabilia, which includes a crystal-studded glove the late pop star wore during his “Bad” world tour.


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