Top official in Equatorial Guinea sex tape scandal jailed for embezzlement

By The Inspirer.

A nephew of Equatorial Guinea’s long-serving President Teodoro Obiang Nguema has been sentenced to eight years in prison for embezzlement, following a case that blended political intrigue with scandalous leaked sex tapes.

Baltasar Ebang Engonga, nicknamed “Bello” for his striking looks, was convicted alongside five other senior officials for diverting public funds. The amounts in question ranged from $9,000 (£6,600) to $220,000, which they claimed as fraudulent travel allowances. Engonga himself was fined $220,000 in addition to his prison term, the Supreme Court confirmed.

The former head of the National Financial Investigation Agency, Engonga once led probes into financial crimes such as money laundering. But last year, he found himself on the other side of the law, accused of secretly channeling embezzled funds into Cayman Islands accounts.

While in detention, dozens of explicit videos allegedly featuring Engonga with multiple women—some of them wives and relatives of powerful political figures—leaked online.

The timing of the release, coming just days after his phones and computers were seized by security forces, raised suspicions that the material was deliberately circulated to tarnish his reputation.

Observers saw his public disgrace and arrest last October as a calculated move to crush any presidential ambitions he may have harbored.

His uncle, President Obiang, has ruled Equatorial Guinea since 1979, making him the world’s longest-serving head of state. Obiang’s son, Vice-President Teodoro Obiang Mangue, is widely expected to succeed him.

Images from the courtroom on Thursday showed Engonga in beige prison clothes, slumped forward with his head in his hand. The once-rising political star now joins the ranks of detainees at the notorious Black Beach prison in the capital, Malabo.

The authenticity of the sex tapes has never been independently verified, but their release deepened speculation that Engonga’s downfall was as much about political rivalry as corruption.