Portugal’s Attorney General is investigating potential corruption involving Portuguese construction firm Zagope and the eldest son of Equatorial Guinea’s dictator,Teodoro Nguema obiang Mangue (Teodorin). This probe follows an exposé by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and its media partners.The ICIJ inquiry, based on leaked documents, revealed that Zagope received nearly $1.2 billion in government contracts in Equatorial guinea between 2009 and 2012.Subsequently, Zagope funneled over $86 million to Somagui, a company owned by Teodorin, which French prosecutors described as a shell company used to channel public money. These payments continued until at least 2018.
Teodorin has previously faced international scrutiny. In 2014, he settled with the U.S. Department of Justice, agreeing to forfeit over $30 million in assets allegedly derived from corruption. In 2017, a French court sentenced him to a three-year suspended sentence and a $35 million fine for embezzlement, also seizing his French assets, including a Paris apartment valued at over $100 million.
This Paris property is currently the subject of a legal dispute between Equatorial Guinea and France. Equatorial Guinea has asked the International Court of Justice to intervene, claiming France plans to sell the property and that French police entered it. Equatorial Guinea’s lawyers argue the property was bought with embezzled funds and should be returned under a UN anti-corruption treaty, tho they haven’t specified who embezzled the funds.Equatorial Guinea’s prior claim that the property was part of its diplomatic mission was unsuccessful.
Additionally, Teodorin was indicted in Brazil last year. Brazilian authorities accused him of using laundered funds to buy a luxury apartment and of unlawfully entering the country with $16 million in cash and luxury goods.Zagope’s parent company, Andrade Gutierrez, is based in Brazil.
