Teodoro Nguema Obiang has been serving as the vice president of Equatorial Guineas since 2016. He is the son of Teodoro Obiang, the world’s longest-serving president and the current president of Equatorial Guinea.
In 2012, his father’s administration assigned him to serve several government roles including Minister of Agriculture and Forestry and Second Vice-President in charge of military and security. In 2016, he was promoted as the First Vice-President. He is renowned for leading a luxurious lifestyle and has faced numerous international criminal charges and sanctions for alleged corruption and embezzlement.
This article deals with everything you want to know about the current vice president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Nguema Obiang.
Teodoro Nguema Obiang: Early Life And Education
Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue was born at the town of Akoakam-Essangui in Equatorial Guinea on June 25, 1968. He was born as the only child of Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and Constancia Mangue. The 54-year-old Teodoro Nguema Obiang was nicknamed Teodrin and has been serving as the vice president of Equatorial Guinea since 2016.
Nguema attended the Normandy-based Ecole des Roches, a private French educational institution. He registered for a four-term non-degree program in English as a second language at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. He lived luxuriously at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and apparently left school after just five months at the request of the school’s officials.
Teodoro Nguema Obiang: Political Career
Nguema held the position of Minister of Agriculture and Forestry for almost 15 years after serving as a presidential advisor in the 1990s.
According to the constitution in 2005, Nguema might become president after his father’s retirement if he were to be named vice president of Equatorial Guinea.
In May 2012, he was finally promoted to the position of Second Vice-President along with former prime minister Ignacio Milam Tang and he was in charge of security and defense. Ignacio Milam Tang was titled the First Vice-President. In June 2016, Nguema was appointed to the position of First Vice-President after serving as the Second Vice-President for four years and continued in charge of military and security. This move, which came after his father’s re-election in 2016, put him firmly in a position to succeed him.
Teodoro Nguema Obiang: Controversies
Teodor Nguema Obiang’s superyacht and two other properties were seized by the South African court in February 2023. This was due to his failure to pay a South African businessman.
The global media criticized Nguema for spending close to R10,000,000 over a weekend in South Africa for champagne, home renovations, a 2005 Lamborghini Murcielago, a black 2004 Bentley Arnage, and a cream Bentley Continental R from MG Rover Cape Town.
An American law enforcement official thinks that corruption linked to Equatorial Guinea’s oil and gas reserves is the primary source of the majority of his wealth.
As Nguema made eight trips to geneva, Swiss authorities began an inquiry on him on October 18, 2016. French officials had requested their aid in court. He eventually agreed with the Swiss, allowing them to sell his impounded high-end vehicles valued at 18.5 million francs in payment. In September 2019, 25 high-end vehicles were sold for 23.4 million Swiss francs at an auction run by British auctioneers Bonhams.
In September 2018, Nguema and nine other passengers boarded an official flight bound for Brazil, where the Brazilian border police searched some of their 19 bags. This took place at the Viracopos-Campinas International Airport. They discovered 20 watches with an estimated worth of $15 million and about $1.4 million in cash.
In October 2011, the US Justice Department filed a lawsuit to seize $70 million of Nguema’s US assets, including Gulfstream jet, yachts, cars, and Michael Jackson Memorabilia, seven years after the US senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations revealed the Nguema family’s secret accounts at Riggs Bank in Washington and five years after non-profit Global Witness learned of his mansion purchase in Malibu.
After a judge’s order for additional information regarding alleged corruption, the US Department of Justice filed a charge against Nguema in June 2012.
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In February 2012, when French police searched a property owned by Nguema in Paris, they found expensive items inside that were worth millions of euros. A warrant for his arrest was issued in July 2012. The trial for this case was concluded in October 2017, Nguema was given a three-year suspended sentence as well as a suspended $30 million fine. His French properties, including the house in Paris, were also taken along with 17 high-end vehicles.
The UK imposed sanctions on Nguema in 2021, because of his extravagant lifestyle, which included buying homes and private planes, among other things.
Teodoro Nguema Obiang: Personal Life
There isn’t much information available about Nguema’s relationships or dating history. According to reports, it is assumed that the 54-year-old Nguema is not yet married and has no children. We can’t be sure about this, because his personal details are mostly unknown.
Teodoro Nguema Obiang: Net Worth
The Vice president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue is supposed to have an estimated net worth of more than $200 million.
Critics argue that the wealth and assets that Nguema has acquired from the money he made through corruption in the oil and gas reserves of the nation.
Besides the assets and cars Nguema had in his native land, he has various foreign interests in countries such as France, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. Most of the wealth he made in such foreign countries has been seized by the respected authorities due to the allegation regarding Nguema’s extravagant lifestyle.
Nguema owns various mansions, private jets, yachts, and luxurious cars in both Equatorial Guinea and also in other foreign countries which he travels the most.
