WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, held hearings and released reports in 2004 and 2010, exposing actions taken by Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue and his father, President of Equatorial Guinea, in the United States. Levin released the following statement about the civil forfeiture actions filed today by the U.S. Department of Justice:
“Teodoro Obiang has abused his relationship with the United States. My subcommittee exposed his skullduggery in reports issued in 2004 and 2010, which showed how he sent over $100 million in suspicious funds through U.S. banks, set up U.S. shell companies called Unlimited Horizon and Beautiful Vision to hide what he was doing, and purchased luxury goods while the people of his country remained mired in poverty. The Department of Justice is to be applauded for today’s legal actions that show the United States will not harbor the proceeds of foreign corruption.”