The President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, has been in power for the past 46 years. His son Teodoro Obiang Mangue has been his vice president for more than 13 years. Both are repeatedly accused of embezzling millions of dollars from the poor country’s state money.
The money sent from the USA is the first amount from the extraordinary MRA fund, which the US Congress established for the purpose of solving international refugee crises, or facilitating the resettlement of refugees to the United States. However, the administration of President Donald Trump uses it to accelerate the deportation of migrants.
In a letter to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the payment “highly unusual”. With regard to the “history of corruption” in Equatorial Guinea, she expressed “serious concerns about the responsible and transparent use of American taxpayers’ money.”
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In 2017, the Paris court found Vice President Mangue guilty of embezzling tens of millions of euros and money laundering in France. In 2012, the US Department of Justice found that Mangue spent 315 million dollars (6.6 billion crowns) around the world on real estate, fast cars and other luxury goods.
