First trial of the “ill-gotten gains”, Teodorin Obiang will ask for the report – Europe1

This is the first trial in France in the case of the “ill-gotten gains”: Teodorin Obiang, accused of fraudulently built in France, a considerable wealth, must be judged from Monday in Paris, but the son of the president of equatorial Guinea application for a postponement.

A long list of charges. Former minister of Agriculture and forests, promoted at the end of June by her father, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, vice-president of equatorial Guinea, he is being prosecuted before the correctional court of Paris for money laundering misuse of corporate assets, misappropriation of public funds, abuse of confidence and corruption. The trial, the dates of which have been laid down at the end of October, should open at 13: 30 and last until 12 January. According to one of the lawyers of the accused, Emmanuel Marsigny, the time his “much too short” and do not conform to the law, taking into account the fact that his client has declared his address to Malabo.

An apartment for € 107 million. lawyers for Teodorin Obiang, who had to be absent Monday, ask “that it can benefit of the reasonable period of time to be able to organize effectively his defence,” said Master Marsigny, who plans to call several witnesses, some of whom are resident abroad. The investigation, opened after complaints of associations, Sherpa and Transparency International, highlighted the considerable wealth of Teodorin Obiang, 47 years old. A heritage, among others, composed of a building on avenue Foch, estimated at 107 million euros, and luxury cars, and sports (Porsche, Ferrari, Bentley, Bugatti).

The ultra-luxe. The least one can say is that its spending lavishly in France are very distant from the everyday life of his small oil country in central Africa, of which more than half of the residents live below the poverty line. When he is in Paris, Teodorin Obiang, the eternal bachelor look learnedly studied (dark glasses, smooth hair, beard cut), expense cases, entire liquid in the boutiques of the avenue Montaigne. In his apartment in the avenue Foch, the faucets are covered in gold leaf, the master of the house has a hammam, a gym, a nightclub, a hairdressing salon, a cinema room.

At the end of the statement, the judges were of the view that it has built its heritage in France, investing the proceeds of “misappropriation of public funds”, of corruption. A charge always denied by the son of the president of equatorial guinea, which “has always said that he earned lawfully his money in his country”, according to his lawyer.