The vice-president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Nguema Obiang, known as ‘Teodorín’, is being investigated by the Federal Police of Brazil in collaboration with the authorities of Portugal, France and Switzerland for an alleged money laundering crime, according to several media reports.
Although the Brazilian police do not mention his name, media such as ‘Folha de Sao Paulo’ maintain that «the politically exposed foreign person» mentioned by the institution would be ‘Teodorín’, son of Teodoro Obiang, who has been governing Equatorial Guinea for almost half a century amidst allegations of electoral fraud.
In the framework of the ‘Operation Luxury Living’ — in reference to the pad used by the investigated when he publishes his ostentatious lifestyle on social networks — five search warrants have been issued in homes in France, Portugal and Switzerland.
‘Teodorín’ has been singled out on numerous occasions for the ostentation of luxury that he does not care to conceal. In this operation, he is being investigated for money laundering in the 2007 purchase of a luxurious apartment valued at 15.6 million reais (2.7 million euros) in one of the most exclusive areas of Sao Paulo.
The Brazilian police suspect that the property was acquired through offshore companies to hide public money diverted from the public coffers of the African country. Conjectures that have already been confirmed in purchases of luxury goods and vehicles by judicial authorities in the United Kingdom, the United States and France.
At the same time, they have also requested that the banking and tax secrecy of those involved in the purchase of this property in the capital of São Paulo be broken in order to try to trace the origin of the money.
It is not the first time that the Brazilian authorities have laid their hands on ‘Teodorín’, since in 2018 they seized from his entourage 13.8 million euros in cash and a score of luxury watches, at the Viracopos airport in Sao Paulo.
‘Teodorin’ was already sentenced by the French Justice in 2021 to three years of conditional imprisonment, a fine of 30 million euros and the seizure of his assets in France after considering that he would have used the public money of his country to buy luxury properties in various parts of the world
