Equatorial Guinea's vice president bought a Paris mansion on a minister's salary, France confiscated it, and the UN court refused to stop the sale

Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, known as Teodorin, is the son of Teodoro Obiang, who had ruled Equatorial Guinea for about 40 years by 2020. The country is Africa's third-biggest oil producer, and more than half of its 1.2 million people live below the poverty line. A US inquiry found Teodorin earned $80,000 a year as minister of farming and forestry. In 2014 he settled a US forfeiture case that alleged nearly $80 million in corruption proceeds. He agreed to give up more than $30 million in US property, including a Malibu mansion, a Ferrari and Michael Jackson memorabilia, with the proceeds going to charities for Equatorial Guineans. He kept Jackson's crystal glove and a $38.5 million Gulfstream jet. In 2005 he bought a house on Avenue Foch in Paris for $29 million. It has a cinema, a hammam, a disco and gold taps, and is valued at 107 million euros. France seized it in 2012. In October 2017 a Paris court convicted him in absentia of embezzlement and ordered his French assets confiscated. In 2020 an appeals court made his 30 million euro fine payable, and in 2021 France's highest court upheld the conviction. Equatorial Guinea said the house was its embassy; the International Court of Justice found it was his residence. In June 2025 French police changed its locks. On 12 September 2025 the ICJ voted 13 to 2 against blocking the sale. He was still vice president in 2025.