From left to right: Lamborghini Veneno, Koenigsegg One:1, McLaren P1, Bugatti Veyron 16.4 (Image courtesy of Bonhams)
Twenty-five supercars seized by Switzerland in 2016 from Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, the vice president of Equatorial Guinea and son of the president, will be auctioned to the public in September, following a court ruling.
He and his father, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, have been accused of recklessly looting the treasury of their country in what has become an African disease in which public officers turn public treasury into their private estate.
Equatorial Guinea is one of the poorest countries of the world yet father and son who are president and vice president live in obscene opulence.
The auction is expected to raise around $13 million, auction handlers Bonhams said in a statement.
The collection is being “offered for sale by the State of Geneva, to be sold without reserve,” Bonhams said.
Mauro Contessotto, the state auctioneer for Geneva, will conduct the proceedings.
Some of the supercars on offer include a Lamborghini Veneno ($5 million), Ferrari – La Ferrari ($2.6 million), Koenigsegg One:1 ($1.8 million), McLaren P1 ($1.5 million), and a Bugatti Veyron 16.4 ($700,000).
The auction will take place on Sunday, September 29 at Geneva’s Bonmont Golf & Country Club.
A Swiss court ordered that money earned from the sales must be invested in social programs that benefit Equatorial Guinea.
Last September, police in Brazil confiscated a bag of luxury watches and cash from Obiang, who’s often known as Teddy, and his entourage after their private plane landed at an airport near São Paulo.
According to reports, police found around $1.5 million of cash in one bag and watches worth around $15 million in another. It’s illegal to enter Brazil with more than 10,000 reais ($2,400) in cash without declaring it.
In 2017, a French court convicted Obiang of embezzling public money and using it to buy a 20-room apartment in Paris worth about €80 million ($93 million), a fleet of luxury cars, and high-end art.
In 2014, the U.S. DOJ brought a forfeiture action against Obiang under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative. In a settlement, Obiang was forced to sell a $30 million mansion in Malibu, California and donate the money to a charity to help people in Equatorial Guinea.
He also forfeited a Ferrari and Michael Jackson memorabilia, and another $10.3 million in cash. The DOJ said the assets were “the proceeds of corruption.”
The DOJ said in 2014 that Obiang had amassed a personal fortune of more than $300 million on a government salary of less than $100,000.
His father, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, has been the president of Equatorial Guinea since 1979. In 2003, he took control of the national treasury. He said it was necessary “to prevent civil servants from being tempted to engage in corrupt practices.” FCPA blog
