Washington, DC - Congresswoman Sara Jacobs (D-CA-53) and Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar (R-FL-27) have led a bipartisan letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland highlighting kleptocracy in Equatorial Guinea and urging the Administration to promptly share their plan to distribute assets seized in 2014 from corrupt government officials back to the people of Equatorial Guinea. Both Jacobs and Salazar serve on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The letter was also sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and United States Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power. 

Equatorial Guinea has been ruled by an authoritarian and kleptocratic regime since 1979. In 2014, the United States government seized assets that were illegally used by the Second Vice President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Nguema Obiang. The Jacobs-Salazar letter calls for the Biden Administration to “work with independent civil society organizations in Equatorial Guinea to define the process of the assets return so as to help counter further corruption, and to support the growth of democracy, rule of law, and human rights.”

Ten other members of the House of Representatives joined the Jacobs-Salazar letter: Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA-37), Rep. John Curtis (R-UT-03), Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ-07), Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA-01), Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA-45), Rep. André Carson (D-IN-07), Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO-05), Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN-09), Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH-09), and Rep. Ted W. Lieu (D-CA-33).  

”For too long, the people of Equatorial Guinea have borne the consequences of widespread state corruption. The 2014 settlement was an important first step to holding corrupt officials accountable. Now is the time for the Department of Justice to uphold its commitment and release its plan to return $10 million to the people for their benefit,” said Congresswoman Sara Jacobs.

“Equatorial Guinea has suffered from corruption and a lack of democracy for far too long. I welcome the U.S. Government’s efforts to pursue corrupt officials in Equatorial Guinea, but the Department of Justice needs to accurately track the $10 million recovered from kleptocratic corruption. That stolen money should be going to the people of Equatorial Guinea to ensure it doesn’t enrich the coffers of one of the world’s most notorious kleptocracies,” said Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar. 

The text of the letter is as follows (pdf here):

January 13, 2022

The Honorable Merrick Garland

U.S. Department of Justice

950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20530

Dear Attorney General Garland,

We write to express our concern regarding the widespread corruption in the government of Equatorial Guinea and to urge your attention to the delay in the return of $10 million in corruptly obtained assets forfeited to the United States in 2014. These assets were forfeited after the Department of Justice won a landmark case against assets in the United States purchased by the President’s son, the Second Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang (“Nguema Obiang”) of Equatorial Guinea. 

Equatorial Guinea has been ruled by an authoritarian and kleptocratic regime since 1979, when President Teodoro Obiang Nguema (“President Obiang”) came to power. With total command of all branches of government, he has established a nepotistic and patronage-based system that ensures control of the military and of private industry. Accounts of his gross human rights violations and endemic corruption have been regularly recorded in the State Department’s Human Rights Report and by international organizations. 

The U.S. Senate Committee on Investigations in both 2004 and 2010 found that President Obiang and his son Nguema Obiang had illegally moved millions of dollars through U.S. financial institutions. With the help of U.S. lawyers, accountants, and real estate agents, they violated the U.S. Patriot Act and U.S. banking and anti-money laundering regulations. Nguema Obiang then used these illegally obtained assets to fund a lavish lifestyle in the United States while the people of his country suffered.

We applaud the Department of Justice’s prosecution in critical cases against corrupt officials, and we welcomed the 2014 settlement with Mr. Nguema Obiang. We are also encouraged by the Department’s recent announcement that $26.6 million of the funds from the settlement will be used to fight COVID-19 in the country. However, seven years later, we are concerned about the Department’s lack of progress on determining the purpose of and distributing the $10 million in forfeited assets to the United States, which were intended for the use of the people in Equatorial Guinea. 

While we want the assets to be returned in a way that would not be rediverted by the currently corrupt government, we urge the Department devise and share a plan with Congress to return such assets so that the people of Equatorial Guinea may ultimately benefit.

Therefore, we request that you report to Congress the status of the forfeited assets and urge the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section to work with independent civil society organizations in Equatorial Guinea to define the process of the assets return so as to help counter further corruption, and to support the growth of democracy, rule of law, and human rights.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Sincerely, 

Sara Jacobs María Elvira Salazar

Member of Congress Member of Congress

Karen Bass John Curtis

Member of Congress Member of Congress

Tom Malinowski Brian Fitzpatrick

Member of Congress Member of Congress

Katie Porter Steve Cohen

Member of Congress Member of Congress

Ted W. Lieu Emanuel Cleaver

Member of Congress Member of Congress

André Carson Marcy Kaptur

Member of Congress Member of Congress

CC: 

Antony Blinken, Secretary

U.S. Department of State 

Samantha Power, Administrator

United States Agency for International Development