Who is Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue

Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue (born 25 June 1968, nicknamed Teodorín) is the Vice President of Equatorial Guinea, in office since 2012. He is a son of Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the President of Equatorial Guinea, by his first wife, Constancia Mangue Nsue Okomo. He served for years as Minister of Agriculture and Forestry in his father’s government before being appointed as Second Vice-President, in charge of defense and security, in May 2012. He was promoted to the position of First Vice-President in June, 2016.

For a man paid less than $3,000 a month, the 16 acres of mansion, designer golf course and sprawling gardens speckled with fountains in Malibu was quite a buy. The views of the ocean alone – never mind the 15,000 sq ft mansion with eight bathrooms, a pool and tennis courts – probably accounted for a good chunk of the $35m asking price.

But then Teodoro Nguema Obiang’s modest salary as a minister in his father’s government in Equatorial Guinea is largely symbolic, just like the elections in which his father is returned to power with 97% of the vote and the distribution of oil revenues in a country with one of the highest per capita incomes on Earth but some of the poorest people.

Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue (nicknamed Teodorin), vice president of Equatorial Guinea, son of his country’s president, and heir apparent to that office, made headlines this week. According to media reports, authorities in Brazil seized some $16 million in cash and high-end watches from his delegation, where he had reportedly traveled for medical treatment. Brazilian law limits the amount of cash visitors can bring into the country to $2,400.

The 11-man entourage – travelling on a government plane – landed in Viracopos International Airport in Campinas in Sao Paulo on Friday, according to media reports.

Police found $1.5m in cash and watches worth an estimated $15m in two bags, the other 17 bags had clothes,

Global reports that Equatorial Guinea’s embassy told the Brazilian police in a statement that the money was for Mr Obiang’s use on an onward trip to Singapore, while the watches – engraved with his initials – were for his personal use.

Brazil’s foreign ministry told news agency AFP that it was “in permanent coordination with the federal police and the customs service over the case and to decide what measures should be taken”.

Mr Obiang was the only member of the delegation who had diplomatic immunity as the group was not on an official mission, Globo reports.

Police searched other delegation members as Mr Obiang waited outside in a car, it added.

This sort of awkward international incident is not particularly novel for Vice President Obiang. In 2016, Swiss authorities seized eleven of his luxury cars as part of an investigation into corruption and money laundering that culminated in his conviction for embezzlement, in abstentia, in a Paris court last year. In 2014, he resolved the U.S. Justice Department’s charges that he used his country’s public funds for private gain by reaching a $30 million settlement with federal authorities, requiring him to sell his Malibu mansion, a Ferrari, and some of his Michael Jackson memorabilia. None of these previous brushes with the law seem to have cramped the vice president’s style, much of which he documents on Instagram.

Instagram playboy is also the vice-president of Equatorial Guinea

The days of the Bugattis, the chateau Pétrus and the fine Parisian restaurants may be over for Teodorin Obiang – at least in western Europe.

The son of Equatorial Guinea’s leader is due to go on trial for corruption and money laundering in a landmark case in France.

Obiang, the 47-year-old vice-president of the oil-rich but impoverished African country, faces an array of legal cases across Europe as authorities on the continent investigate the sources of his vast wealth and uncover new and even more extravagant ways that he spent some of it.

Equatorial Guinea has gone to the United Nations’ highest court to challenge a conviction in France against its vice-president for embezzling public money from the oil-rich but impoverished west African country – on the grounds that he has diplomatic immunity.

The extraordinary dispute over the status of Teodorin Obiang, whose fleet of Bugatti and Porsche cars was towed away by police during the French investigation, is being argued over at the international court of justice in The Hague this week.

The court, which usually deals with disputes over international borders, heard submissions from French lawyers on Monday morning that the claim on behalf of Obiang, 48, whose father is president of Equatorial Guinea, should be struck out.

in 2017, he was accused of money laundering and was handed a three-year suspended sentence in France.  The court also ordered the seizure of his assets in France, estimated to be worth $116 million at the time.

In 2011, a petition requesting the confiscation of Obiang’s $70 million worth of assets in the U.S. was dismissed but Obiang agreed to forfeit some funds and assets including a fancy Malibu home, a Ferrari, and portions of his Michael Jackson’s memorabilia collection.

In 2016,  the government of Switzerland seized a number of Obiang’s luxurious vehicles and a yacht estimated to be worth $100 million.

Equatorial Guinea is one of Africa’s poorest nation and has Africa’s longest-serving president estimated to be worth $200m.

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