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Entourage of E. Guinea’s president’s son tripped up in Brazil customs
8:28 CAT | 16 Sep 2018
AFP/File photo: Teodorin Nguema Obiang is vice president of Equatorial Guinea and son of its longtime president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema
More than US$16 million (RM66.22 million) in cash and luxury watches were seized at an airport in Brazil in the luggage of a delegation accompanying the son of the president Equatorial Guinea, local media reported.
Teodorin Nguema Obiang, vice president of Equatorial Guinea and son of its longtime president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, arrived Friday on a private plane at Viracapos airport near Sao Paulo as part of an 11 person delegation.
O Estado de Sao Paulo reported on its website late Saturday that federal police found US$1.5 million in cash in one bag and watches worth an estimated US$15 million in another.
TV Globo said Obiang was the only member of the delegation who had diplomatic immunity as the group was not on an official mission.
The bags of other delegation members were inspected as Obiang waited outside in a car, it said.
Brazilian law prohibits people from entering the country with more than 10,000 reais (RM9,915.90), or about US$2,400, in cash.
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Brazil’s foreign ministry told AFP that it was “in permanent coordination with the federal police and the customs service over the case and to decide what measures should be taken.”
The embassy of Equatorial Guinea in Brasilia did not respond to questions about the matter.
O Estado de Sao Paulo quoted a diplomatic source from Equatorial Guinea as saying the money was to pay for medical treatment Obiang was to undergo in Sao Paulo.
As for the watches, they were for the “personal use” of the president’s son, and were engraved with his initials, the report said.
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Accused of using public funds to support a lavish lifestyle, Obiang was sentenced in France to a three year suspended sentence in October 2017 for money-laundering.
He has visited Brazil several times, attending the 2015 Carnival in Rio de Janeiro when a samba school won top honours for a Equatorial Guinea-themed parade but was heavily criticized because of alleged funding for it by the Obiang regime.
Obiang, an autocrat with broad powers to rule by decree, has been in power for 38 years-
Here we go again.
Vice dictator of Equatorial Guinea Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue and son of the current dictator Teodoro Obiang Ngeuma caught in Brazil with millions of dollars. pic.twitter.com/lA72w452hX— Cameroon Community (@Cameroon_Com) September 16, 2018
Polícia Federal apreende 16 mi de dólares de filho de ditador africano
Teodoro Obiang Mangue é vice-presidente de Guiné Equatorial e veio ao Brasil em missão não oficial; malas de comitiva continham dinheiro e relógios de luxohttps://t.co/ibqtpO8FKB pic.twitter.com/2dNIeY9AAM
— M. Avante Brasil (@MovAvanteBrasil) September 16, 2018
Source: AFP
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