African dictator's son orders luxury superyacht

The statement from Global Witness said that German company Kusch Yachts has been asked to build the yacht, housing a cinema, restaurant, bar and swimming pool, though construction has not yet started.

Global Witness has been urging Washington to institute sanctions against Teodorin Obiang, whose extravagant lifestyle currently includes a USD 35 million-dollar mansion in Malibu, California, a USD 33 million jet and a fleet of luxury cars, while earning a salary of USD 6,799 a month as agriculture minister.

The government press office in Equatorial Guinea confirmed that the president's son had ordered the yacht design, but said he "then dismissed the idea of buying it."

It said that if the order had gone ahead, he would have bought it with income from private business activities and not "with funds derived from sources of illegal financing or corruption."

President Teodoro Obiang, who reportedly is grooming his son to succeed him as president, took power in a bloody 1979 coup. Forbes magazine has estimated his wealth at around USD 600 million.

Teodorin Obiang justified his wealth in a sworn affidavit to a South African court questioning his ownership of luxury mansions and expensive cars in Cape Town in 2006.
He stated that public officials in his country are allowed to partner with foreign companies bidding for government contracts and said this means "a Cabinet minister ends up with a sizable part of the contract price in his bank account."

A US Justice Department investigation into US banks accepting some USD 75 million from Teodorin Obiang said in a 2007 report that "it is suspected that a large portion of Teodoro Nguema Obiang's assets have originated from extortion, theft of public funds, or other corrupt conduct."

No action has been taken to sanction Obiang's son, despite pressure from groups including US-based Equatorial Guinea Justice.

"To stop the type of large-scale theft of assets and corruption carried out by high-level government officials, that continues to make poverty eradication in African an unattainable goal we need the full cooperation of Western nations that provide the goods and services demanded by these corrupt millionaires," said the group's executive director Tutu Alicante.

The tiny West African nation may be oil rich, but UN statistics show that 20 per cent of children in Equatorial Guinea die before reaching the age of 5, and the average citizen is unlikely to live beyond 50.