Reply #4: Show me the money [View All]

Take Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mbasogo, a member of the same dictatorial ruling family that has ruled Equatorial Guinea since its independence from Spain in 1968. The dictatorship has been in power for about as long as Saddam held sway over Iraq. But Obiang is sitting on top of huge oil revenues and he is in tight with Bush's, Cheney's, and Condoleezza Rice's Exxon Mobil, Hess, and Marathon oil buddies in Houston and Dallas. Equatorial Guinea's oil revenues, estimated at $700 billion in 2003, keep Obiang in power. His son, Teodorino, spends a lot of time in Paris and Washington, where his dad just spent $3.5 million for two mansions courtesy of mortgages from Riggs Bank, where the African kleptocracy keeps much of its ill-gotten oil revenue.

It does not matter to the Bush regime that Obiang keeps his political prisoners in dark dungeons that would have made Saddam envious, or that Obiang executes opponents he finds particularly distasteful. Nor does it matter to Bush that Equatorial Guinea's children are dying from malaria, intestinal worms, and malnutrition because the Obiang dictatorship does not provide the country with adequate sanitation or medical care. The country's state radio recently pronounced that Obiang was God and that therefore he could kill anyone without accounting to anyone. It sounds a lot like Saddam. But in Obiang's case, he has the full support of Bush because Obiang is turning over his country's oil to the United States with himself getting enough money to buy Rolls Royces, Bentleys, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and diamond-studded Rolex watches. Like Saddam with his son, Qusay, Obiang has designated his son, Teodorino, as his heir apparent.
http://www.newsinsider.org/madsta/saddam_is_captured_long_live_americas_other_tyrants.html

In June, Tony Blair is to host a transparency conference in London aimed at tackling the corruption that surrounds the exploitation of natural resources in developing countries. Equatorial Guinea is the only oil-producing country to have refused to attend, notes the piece. Equatorial Guinea has become a major oil and gas producer in the past 10 years, yet the 500,000-strong population remains in poverty.

Details of the Riggs Bank account have emerged after the country's ambassador, Teodoro Biyogo Nsue, who is President Obiang's brother-in-law, unwisely mentioned that oil revenue was held at Riggs during a presentation late last year at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

An investigation by the Los Angeles Times alleged that President Obiang is the account's sole signatory and more than $300 million of the country's energy earnings has been deposited in the account by oil companies active in Equatorial Guinea, including ExxonMobil and Amerada Hess. Alejandro Evuna Owono, a Guinean aide, denied to the LA Times that the government was secretive about oil revenue. "The IMF and the World Bank know national production figures, but we can use the money as we see fit," he said.
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,date:05-12-2003~menuPK:34461~pagePK:34392~piPK:34427~theSitePK:4607,00.html

Simon P. Kareri, Vice President and Senior International Banking Manager, was promoted to Senior Vice President and Senior International Banking Manager. Kareri joined Riggs in 1994 as Vice President and African Caribbean Embassy Manager.
http://www.riggsbank.com/Discover_Riggs/jan25_01.html

Malabo has been abuzz with rumours of a coup for the past few weeks and the authorities here are convinced that the US intelligence service, the CIA, was aware of the rumours. They say that this might explain why, as we exclusively reported in our last issue, the Washington-based Riggs Bank told Obiang to close his account with the bank when he visited it in late February. One of the bank’s senior vice-president and senior international banking manager, the Kenyan-born Simon Kareri, who handled the account — which had $300m — was subsequently fired. Curiously, all the African-Americans who were associated with Kareri at the bank were also dismissed. A number of people were quizzed by the FBI who wanted to know all manners of things about Equatorial Guinea and especially about the country’s First Family, which minister was related to Obiang and which companies he owns.

FBI officers had also raided Kareri’s home Washington. They asked his Senegalese wife a lot of questions on Equatorial Guinea which she could not answer. The FBI officers made it clear to her that they were not after her husband but were interested in any files on Equatorial Guinea that he may have left at home. They then took away all the computers that were in Kareri’s home. At the time Kareri was in Malabo. Curiously, when he returned to Washington after the failure of the coup attempt he contacted the FBI expressing his willingness to be interviewed by him but they declined, saying that they saw no need to interview him. No court charges have been brought against him and he is believed to be seeking legal counsel and may sue Riggs Bank.

Malabo authorities find it ‘awfully suspicious’ that for the past two weeks, the bank had refused to unfreeze Equatorial Guinea’s funds. Apparently, they had recently decided that if there were to be a coup in Malabo they would freeze Obiang and his government’s accounts. This was not done with the Haitian government account when Haitian President Jean Baptiste Aristide was ousted the first time. He was able to have access to his government’s funds with the same bank.
http://217.199.168.239/040.html

The unmasking of the coup plot may also embarrass Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who has had several meetings with Moto recently, and was said by military sources to have been aware of the plot. Aznar is due to stand down ahead of national elections in the next few weeks.

The affair will also be a test case for South Africa's anti-mercenary legislation, given that much of the planning for the coup happened there and that most of the mercenaries were former South African soldiers.

President Obiang will doubtless try to use the failed coup to his advantage. His position has seemed to weaken in recent months, with the succession battle heating up and rifts developing within the country's tiny ruling clique. The latest blow to Obiang came late last month when he visited Washington D.C. in an attempt to resolve problems with his government's account at Riggs Bank. Obiang is the sole signatory on that account, which had a balance of more than US$600 million. The account has recently been investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and an official at Riggs Bank has been interrogated by US agents.
http://africa-confidential.com/latestissue.asp

Tony Worthington:
At one time, America had little interest in Africa, but increasing amounts of oil are coming from it. We are in a new version of the great game in which the powers are struggling for resources. The Americans are trying to get out of reliance on Saudi Arabia and west Africa is the middle of an oil boom. I was astonished by the figures: 7 billion of an estimated 8 billion barrels of oil discovered last year were found off the west coast of Africa. West Africa now sends almost as much oil to the United States as Saudi Arabia. With that change comes military interest as well, but I do not have time to speak about that.

Nigeria is the worst case of a country discovering oil and experiencing misery. Following the discovery of huge oilfields, per capita income fell by 23 per cent. since 1975. I watched with interest when democracy took over in Nigeria, but I have seen no further signs of transparency. When we went to Nigeria, it was hard for politicians to find out what was going on. In Angola, more than $1 billion—about a third of state income—disappears each year and cannot be accounted for.

My favourite example of the relationship between the United States, its oil companies and African states is that of Equatorial Guinea. It is a tiny country of about 500,000 people—about a third the size of Northern Ireland—but it sits on oil. In Washington, almost within sight of the White House, there is a place called Dupont circle. There one will find Riggs bank, in which, it is alleged by the Los Angeles Times and corroborated by Global Witness, there is a bank account holding between $300 million and $500 million in the name of the President of Equatorial Guinea. That amount of money can only have come from Equatorial Guinea's oil resources, because oil represents 90 per cent. of its income. The dominant oil companies are Exxon and Chevron—American companies that reveal no information about their payments to that country. If they did, we would know about the route that the money followed. The President of Equatorial Guinea is

4 Nov 2003 : Column 758

therefore accused of huge money laundering in President Bush's neighbourhood bank, but there has been no sign of any attempt to find out whether that is the origin of the money.
The magazine, New Internationalist, ranks the world's regimes from one star to five star. Five star is "excellent"; one star is "appalling". It gives Equatorial Guinea one star, saying that all power rests in the presidency and that the president has no political vision beyond self-enrichment, self-aggrandisement and ruthless repression. No one in this place would achieve that record. We used to treat Equatorial Guinea as a pariah state. It is said that around one third of its people have fled. When it had elections last year, the leaders of the three opposition parties were locked up in jail and President Obiang got 99 per cent. of the vote. That gives us a clue that something is wrong. Even the US Department of Energy reports strong evidence of Government misappropriation of the oil funds that represent 90 per cent. of the country's income.
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200203/cmhansrd/cm031104/debtext/31104-29.htm

And now, equal time with Mbob Mbodelango.

Madrid.- Feb. 26, 2004 .- The F.B.I. is investigating Teodoro Nsue Biyogo, former Ambassador of Equatorial Guinea in Washington and brother-in-law of President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
http://www.guinea-ecuatorial.org/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=94

There are daily flights between Dallas in Texas and Malabo. This is possibly the highest frequency of direct airline flights between the United States and Africa. These are commuter flights that bring drilling workers from Dallas.

The oil companies pay a hefty fee to Mbassogo for drilling oil. This is paid into Mbassogo’s personal bank account in the Riggs Bank in Washington, DC owned by Mbassogo. The citizens of Equatorial Guinea have no idea how much money is deposited in that bank account.

Ultimately the wealth is shared between the Mbassogo family and his cronies and the oil companies. The rest of the citizens of Equatorial Guinea are living in abject poverty.

Why is the Mugabe regime trying to show off? They have invited reporters into the seized jet. The Home Affairs Minister has made several press statements on the matter.

In fact, the entire ZANUPF machinery has climbed onto the bandwagon on blitzing the world with information about this case. Mugabe’s foreign minister Mudenge said the mercenaries should face even the capital punishment. As it turned out, the mercenaries are to be tried for lesser crimes.

The lawyer for the mercenaries has already been allowed to go and see the so-called mercenaries. The lawyer later said the men were being well cared for. He said their only complaint is they are being given TOO MUCH FOOD.
http://actzim.com/lfamar15.html

Thank you very much for your input, Mr. Mbodelango.
I am sure we will have occasion to call on you again.

Jonathan J. Bush (Jonathan James Bush) (1931- ) is an uncle to President George Walker Bush.
May 31, 2000: Riggs Bank N.A. today announced that the Board of Directors of RIMCO, a wholly owned investment management subsidiary, has elected Jonathan J. Bush President & Chief Executive Officer and a Director, replacing Philip Tasho who resigned. In addition, Henry A. Dudley, Jr. was elected Chairman.
"Mr. Bush will continue as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of J. Bush & Co., an investment management company he founded in 1970, which Riggs acquired in 1997. Mr. Dudley, a 24-year veteran of Riggs, will continue to be responsible for all of Riggs Bank's investment management, trust and private banking business.
http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Jonathan_J._Bush

According to several of those sources and others familiar with the account, more than $300 million of the country's energy earnings has been deposited in the account by international oil companies active in Equatorial Guinea, including ExxonMobil Corp. and Amerada Hess Corp. The money is under the direct control of Obiang, the sources say.
The arrangement has raised concerns at the International Monetary Fund, where officials have refused to provide assistance to Equatorial Guinea until Obiang accounts for his country's oil money and have urged him to transfer it to its home treasury.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/natres/oil/2003/0122gui.htm

From what I have been given to understand, the Riggs Bank may very well experience considerable difficulty in coming up with $300 million CASH. It is at times like these that an uncle might call on his nephew for assistance.