The Brazilian Federal Police launched this Tuesday (13) a transnational operation that investigates possible crime of money laundering committed by the son of the dictator of Equatorial Guinea and number 2 of the regime, Teodoro Nguema Obiang, known as Teodorín.
Five search and seizure warrants were carried out through cooperation between the PF and authorities in France, Portugal and Switzerland. Teodorín is known for corruption scandals and became a headache for the regime when he wasted luxury real estate on social networks.
The operation targets possible money laundering in the purchase of an apartment on Rua Haddock Lobo, in a prime area of São Paulo, in 2007, for R$ 15.6 million. The son of Teodoro Obiang, the world’s longest-lasting dictator, would have acquired coverage through offshore shell companies.
The PF suspects that the amount has an illicit origin – Teodorín received sanctions and convictions in the United Kingdom, the United States and France for paying for cars, real estate and luxury clothes with money resulting from corruption in his country, in which oil dominates the economy.
When requesting cooperation for the measures, the PF lists the suspicions in the US and France and indicates the possibility that his actions in Brazil follow the same pattern: public money diverted and laundered in real estate and luxury items in other countries.
Among the measures that were carried out abroad at the request of the PF are search and seizure operations at two addresses in Switzerland. One of them targets a possible intermediary responsible for instructing two Brazilians involved in the purchase of property for the dictator’s son. Such actions also took place in Paris and Lisbon.
The PF also requested that the bank and tax secrecy of those involved in the purchase of the property be broken, in order to try to trace the origin of the money and find out if it left companies in the name of Teodorin in Equatorial Guinea.
Number 2 of the regime would have acquired the property through a shell company, Nova Forma, controlled by foreign firms headquartered in the British Virgin Islands and Switzerland. The country’s embassy in Brazil even stated that the company and the apartment would be their property.
The diplomatic representation was sought by the Sheet on Tuesday afternoon by email and phone, but did not respond to requests for comment by the time this story was published.
After acquiring the apartment with the help of a person identified as a realtor or lawyer by the PF, Teodorín started renovating the place with French architects. He came to the site once or twice a year and kept luxury vehicles there, including a Porsche, a Maserati, a Lamborghini and a Mercedes-Benz.
The PF believes that the property in São Paulo was acquired with money accumulated illegally by Obiang’s son. In allusion to Teodorín’s stance on social media, the operation was baptized #LuxuryLiving (luxury life), a hashtag commonly used by him.
The scope of the operation is luxury property, but the investigation also investigates other goods, possibly of illicit origin, seized with Teodorín at Viracopos Airport, in Campinas, in 2018, when the Ecuadorian-Guinean politician hid goods from customs.
In all, in the 2018 seizure, Teodorín found $1.4 million in cash and 20 luxury watches, valued at $15.4 million. The operation was named Safe Conduct at the time.
Teodorín is the main candidate to assume the leadership of the regime in his father’s place, although family disputes have been evident in recent years. The African country had sham elections in November, and the regime claims that Obiang was re-elected with 95% of the votes.
A military man by training, Teodoro Obiang has been in power since 1979. He rose to the post after giving his uncle Francisco Macías, who was also a dictator, a coup. His regime is accused of human rights violations and suppressing freedom of expression and the press.
Although mostly speaking Spanish, Equatorial Guinea is part of the CPLP, Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries, alongside Brazil. The nation was the last of the nine to join the alliance, and it did so under criticism and pressure. Long overdue, the country abolished the death penalty last September, eight years after joining the community.
The most recent elections were criticized by countries like the US. In a statement, the US State Department says that irregularities in the electoral process undermine the credibility of the results announced by Malabo on the last 26th, six days after the vote.
Still, Obiang is one of dozens of African leaders expected to attend a summit organized by the Joe Biden government this week in an attempt to contain the Chinese and Russian advance on the continent.
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