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Extraordinary spending of African oligarch – dictator’s playboy son lands him in hot water as Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue goes on trial in Paris, accused of using public funds for life of luxury

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Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, 47, luxury Playboy son of Africa’s longest serving dictator is on trial over spending in Paris
Accused of using public funds for life of partying with semi-naked women, sipping champagne, enjoying helicopter rides, eating in five-star restaurants and driving super cars
His life style plays out on Instagram using #luxuryliving hashtag, over 800 selfies and counting, depicting his ‘love for toys’ and his opulent lifestyle
One poster asked : ‘You put up photos, showing us everything you have. The people of your country have nothing. Doesn’t that weigh on your conscience a bit?’ 
Obiang, the Vice President of Equatorial Guinea chooses to in Equatorial Guinea while he is being tried in absentia, in Paris
The tally so far is running in hundreds of millions
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‘Player’: 47-year-old bachelor, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue – facing trial in Paris for corruption, money laundering and embezzlement. He has opted to stay in Equatorial Guinea while his trial takes place

 Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, the playboy son of Africa’s longest serving dictator on trial in Paris accused of stealing public funds from Equatorial Guinea to fund his super affluent life style. A life style that rivals the best of the East European oligarchs, Middle Eastern oil rich sheikhs and the French Riviera crowd, chronicled literally in hundreds of social media posts.
On Instagram, the 47-year-old son of president Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who was made Equatorial Guinea’s vice-president and security chief by his father, is pictured skiing, scuba diving, walking with lions, partying with semi-naked women, sipping champagne, enjoying helicopter rides, eating in five-star restaurants and driving super cars, top-of-the-range motorbikes, speed boats and submersibles around a series of palatial estates. He allegedly, spent $700,000 renting a yacht to impress the US rapper Eve, whom he was rumored to be dating in 2010.
Prior to 2012, Teodoro Obiang seemed to lead a charmed life, visiting his five-story pied-à-terre here on the chic Avenue Foch two or three times a year, where he kept a fleet of 11 supercars, ordering bottles of Romanée-Conti Burgundies and watching movies in his home theater.
However, for now at least, the party train seems to have ground to a halt as the international community go chasing the Nguema clan to retrieve some of the wealth they allegedly, have looted from their country.

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A life chronicled on Instagram: Obiang riding a $75,000 so called  ‘big trike for adults’ 

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Showing off his yellow McClaren on his account, as part of his opulent lifestyle.

French prosecutors say the ‘player’ son of Africa’s doyen of dictators has been siphoning off millions of dollars from his impoverished nation.
In August 2012, French authorities seized the Parisian property, having taken his $2 million wine collection earlier that year and the 11 super luxury cars in September 2012, as well. This was all part of a corruption investigation involving Obiang’s father, Nguema Mbasogo, the dictator of Equatorial Guinea.

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Sub-Saharan oligarch, living in style: In a series of posts, Obiang gets across his ‘high roller’ style

In 2014, Obiang surrendered more than $30 million in assets under a plea agreement to the US government, after  being accused of amassing a vast amount of wealth, over $70 million, through extortion, embezzlement and other acts of corruption. The charges extended to other officials in the Nguema administration, as well.
Those assets included a mansion in Malibu, a Ferrari and Michael Jackson memorabilia. He was able to keep Jackson’s famous crystal-encrusted ‘Bad Tour’ glove because the item was outside the U.S., alongside the ‘Thriller’ jacket and the late singer’s gulf stream jet. Obiang though, was forced to pay a further $1 million to cover value, of those items.

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The US govt allowed Obiang to keep the gulf stream jet he bought from Michael Jackson’s estate
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Obiang it would appear, is determined to show that an oligarch from the third world can be as privileged and mindless in the pursuit of hendonistic pleasures as his counterparts from other regions

The unrepentant Veepee continued posting under the name Teddy Nguema, often using the hashtag #luxuryliving, revealing a life of astonishing wealth and privilege at a time when three quarters of the 750,000 citizens of his small, oil-rich west African nation live below the poverty line.

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, 74, the former National guard chief, seized power in 1979 from his uncle, who accused him of using sorcery and collecting human skulls. He later executed his uncle, president Macias Nguema, who was quite evil in his own right.
He has since won a series of elections in his country with a dubious 90 per cent or more share of the vote. He then created a one-party state in a country with Africa’s most notorious prison, Black Beach, which is known for its torture.
A former Spanish colony, Equatorial Guinea is a tiny country in West Africa that was largely ignored, even in the region, until American energy company Exxon Mobil discovered oil and gas there in 1994. However, despite having an income per capita of $50,000, life for the vast majority of the country remains at a subsistence level. The majority of the people continue to live below the poverty line with most having no access to electricity or clean water.
Nguema’s government was listed by U.S. think tank Freedom House, as among one of the world’s worst regimes along with North Korea, Burma and Somalia.
His opponents allege that he dabbles in cannibalism and rights groups claim his regime suppresses dissent with a time-honoured combination of arbitrary arrests, torture and extra-judicial killings

 More than 800 photographs celebrate and chronicle Obiang’s lifestyle in the past three years. on holiday and attending sports tournaments, beer festivals and carnivals at the worlds most exotic pleasure spots from  Capri and Aruba to Dubai, Brazil’s Copa, Switzerland and Germany. On board a private jets and yachts, bedecked.
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This is the reality for a significant number of the 750,000 Equatorial Guinea citizens, a country with per capita income of $50,000
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The Presidential Palace in the capital, Malabo
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Children palying on the streets of Malabo
The life of the African oligarch: Obiang riding one of three $75,000 futuristic ‘Tron’ bikes parked in his driveway

Others show him driving contraptions including what appears to be a Batmobile, a $75,000, futuristic Tron motorbike and mini submarines

Comments range from hero worship such as: ‘Our beloved vice-president, pride of the African youth’, ‘très charismatique!!!’ and ‘Yes my uncle, a large and powerful look’.
To the indignant comments from of some of his countrymen about his lifestyle in a nation where most the people have no access to portable drinking water. ‘You’re spending money on silly things and here I am unable to afford even bread,’ one post remarked.
The Veepee still, acknowledges his official role in government, posting photos with visiting dignitaries from Nigeria, Gabon, Benin and Ivory Coast, a summit of African and Arab leaders in November, his own visit earlier that month to Egypt and photos with US President Barack Obama and his Wife Michelle Obama at a United Nations General Assembly.
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Obiang had to forfeit his $20 million Malibu mansion as part of a settlement with the US government, in 2014

This week, a Paris court launched the trial in absentia of the president’s son, accusing him of corruption, money laundering and embezzlement.
The trial is part of a wider-ranging clamp-down by France on African dictators and their cronies, accused of spending their loot on luxury assets in Europe.
Prosecutors supported by Transparency International and other campaigning NGOs claim that in nine years between 2004 and 2011, when he served as agriculture minister, Obiang siphoned off as much as $115m through a bogus tax imposed on wood sales.

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Always cool and dapper, the 47-year-old bachelor enjoys the finer things in life. In his capacity as Vice President, Obiang [picture] is in charge of security for his dad, the president

Although his government salary, even as vice-president, is reported to be less than $100,000, court papers claim Obiang spent huge sums staying in Parisian palaces and later buying a mansion close to the Champs Élysée that had gold and gem-encrusted taps, movie, theater, club room and a hair salon.
He is further alleged to have bought over 15 super luxury autos worth $6 million and fine art worth another $24 million at the sale of Yves Saint Laurent’s private collection.
The scion of the Nguema family faces further sanction in Switzerland, where last year the authorities impounded 11 luxury cars including a Bugatti, four ferraris, a Porsche, a Lamborghini and an Aston Martin that were parked at Geneva airport.

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Obiang show cases his red Aston Martin

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 Obiang was pictured drinking beer at Germany’s Oktoberfest, last year
The trial is expected to hear from witnesses including a former personal aides who have alleged their employer came to Paris with suitcases full of cash and paid mainly in cash for luxury goods.
Obiang’s attorneys insist he is ‘not a big-time bandit’ and should benefit from diplomatic immunity. ‘He has always said that he earned the money legally in his country,’ defense attorney Emmanuel Marsigny said.
For William Bourdon, a campaigning lawyer representing Transparency International in the case, Obiang was ‘part of a small club, a small but global club of corrupters’.
‘Their common characteristic is they will never confess. Never. Have you ever heard of a global corrupter turn to his people, a hand over the heart, and tell them: ‘I am sorry, I apologize’? No … He’s been using all possible legal tools to invalidate the trial,’ he said
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Obiang under the handle ‘Teddy Nguema’,  hashtag #luxuryliving ,  posts a pensive pose while on a private vacation

Furthermore, Bourdon’s legal team have won the right to show pictures from Obiang’s Instagram account in the trial to impress on the panel of judges that the absentee defendant has not repented despite the multiple investigations he is facing.
‘If Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue is indeed at the origin of this account which seems to be the case, its content illustrates his outrageous lifestyle led with obvious disregard for any dignity or decency,’ he said.
‘It is impossible not to be left with the impression that he operates with absolute disdain for the public interest, that has already been deeply compromised in Equatorial Guinea, and which he is supposed to embody.
‘The French investigations focus on events between 1997 and 2011 but these pictures and videos illustrate the issues the judges are due to deliberate on.’

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Obiang’s account offers a glimpse into the private life of the dynastic Obiang family. Teddy Nguema was appointed by vice-president by his father

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