The United States Senate report on Riggs bank details a path of corruption, cover-ups and unscrupulous collusion between the respected bank and the President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
Single-party rule was officially ended in Equatorial Guinea in 1991, but free and fair elections have not followed. In the most recent election in December 2002, Nguema claimed victory with 97% of the vote.
He is depicted as dominating the Equatorial Guinea government. In the words of the US State Department, he ”names and dismisses cabinet members and judges, ratifies treaties, leads the armed forces, and … appoints the governors.” A review of top Equatorial Guinea officials over the past few years shows that many are members of the president’s extended family.
The Riggs report found that the bank was aware that the president and his family controlled a number of Equatorial Guinea companies. These include:
Sonavi, owned by the president’s brother, provides security services. US oil companies have been told that the company has a monopoly.
Abayak, SA, was, and perhaps still is, the only construction company in the country, and a participant in real estate deals on behalf of the president and his wife. Abayak has a 15% interest in a subsidiary of ExxonMobil called Mobil Oil Equatorial Guinea.
Sofana and Somagui Forestal is owned solely by the president’s son and has exclusive rights to exploit timber — after oil — the country’s leading source of foreign exchange.
Nusiteles was established in 2000 as an Equatorial Guinea telecommunications company. It is jointly owned by Nguema through Abayak and the minister of foreign affairs, the director of national security and the minister of justice.
Geogam — Guinea Equatorial Oil and Gas Marketing — is 25%-owned by the government and 75%-owned by Abayak.
In November 2001 the Riggs account manager for Equatorial Guinea wrote a memorandum stating: ”During my last trip to Equatorial Guinea, I was able to tour most of the businesses controlled by the president and his family. Due to the significant growth in the country, the businesses have grown exponentially from sleepy businesses that I used to know to very active interests generating significant revenues.”
The Senate investigation found that Riggs opened multiple personal accounts for Nguema, his wife and other relatives; helped establish shell offshore corporations for him and his sons; and from 2000 to 2002 facilitated almost $13-million in cash deposits into Riggs accounts controlled by Nguema and his wife.
It continues: ”On two of those occasions, Riggs accepted without due diligence $3-million in cash deposits for an account opened in the name of the president’s offshore shell corporation, Otong, SA.
”In addition, Riggs opened an account for the Equatorial Guinea government to receive funds from oil companies doing business in Equatorial Guinea, under terms allowing withdrawals with two signatures, one from the Equatorial Guinea president and the other from either his son, the Equatorial Guinea minister of mines, or his nephew, the Equatorial Guinea secretary of state for treasury and budget.
Riggs subsequently allowed wire transfers withdrawing more than $35-million from the Equatorial Guinea government account, wiring the funds to two companies which were unknown to the bank and had accounts in jurisdictions with bank secrecy laws.”
The investigators said they had ”reason to believe that at least one of these recipient companies is controlled in whole or in part by the Equatorial Guinea president.
”When, in 2004, the bank requested more information about the two companies from the Equatorial Guinea president, he declined to provide it, except to say the wire transfers to them had been authorised.
”The senior leadership at Riggs bank were well aware of the Equatorial Guinea accounts and met on several occasions with the Equatorial Guinea president and other Equatorial Guinea officials. The bank leadership permitted the account manager handling the Equatorial Guinea relationship to become closely involved with Equatorial Guinea officials and business activities, including advising the Equatorial Guinea government on financial matters and becoming the sole signatory on an Equatorial Guinea account holding substantial funds.”
The Senate report said the bank had exercised such lax oversight of the account manager’s activities that, among other misconduct, the account manager was able to wire-transfer more than $1-million from Equatorial Guinea’s oil account at Riggs to another bank for an account opened in the name of Jadini Holdings, an offshore corporation controlled by the account manager’s wife.