PREZ NGUEMA’S SON FLAUNTS RICHES AS POVERTY EATS NATION

Equatorial Guinea is among Africa’s biggest oil producers, in the same league as Nigeria and Angola. However, instead of that resource wealth trickling down to the people, it has for decades been the personal piggy bank for the Obiang family and a few connected elites, making the country one of the ten-most corrupt in the world. President Teodoro Obiang Nguema’s son, Teodorin Nguema, is the perfect poster boy for the rot in the country.

He is infamous for his debauchery, his million-dollar Bugattis, bags full of cash and Playboy bunnies in tow. He bought a mansion in California for $30 million in cash, owns Michael Jackson memorabilia, including a jacket and $275,000 glove, and had no problem coughing up $1,734 for a pair of wine glasses. Although Teodorin’s annual salary was about $100,000 in 2014, he’s reportedly managed “through bribes, kickbacks, embezzlement, and extortion” (FT) to accumulate a fortune of over $300 million, including major US assets owned and acquired through shell companies and third parties. From 2004 to 2008, US lawyers, bankers, and real estate and escrow agents helped Teodorin move over $110 million through American bank accounts.

Despite annual oil revenues reaching $4.8 billion by 2007, the country remains marred by chronic hunger, a crumbling education system, frequent blackouts, poor sanitation and disease. Nearly 80% of its people live in abject poverty. Child mortality has increased to the point that some 15% of Equatorial Guinea’s children die before reaching age five, making it one of the deadliest places on the planet to be young, according to a 2011 Foreign Policy article.