By Peter Allen
The Express
PARIS — Eleven supercars worth up to GBP 5 million have been seized from outside an African dictator’s Paris mansion as part of a foreign aid money-laundering investigation.
The vehicles - that included two Bugatti Veyrons, a Ferrari 599 GTO and a Maserati MC12 - are all registered to Teodoro Obiang Nguema, president of Equatorial Guinea.
He is one of numerous African heads of state who regularly receive vast handouts in foreign aid, including British cash via European funds.
Police swooped on his GBP 15million mansion on the prestigious Avenue Foch close to the Arc de Triomphe this morning, piling all of the vehicles on to a car transporter.
The cars, all apparently new, also included an Aston Martin V8 600lm, Rolls-Royce Drophead Coupe, Porsche Carrera GT and Ferrari Enzo, as well as various Bentleys.
Obiang Nguema, also chairman of the African Union, was not thought to be present at the time. A member of staff told police the cars were mainly used by his son, Teodorin Obiang.
The Supreme Court of France has appointed an investigating judge to conduct a judicial inquiry into claims that Obiang Nguema has used state funds to purchase property including the Avenue Foch house. Equatorial Guinea is oil rich but poverty is rife and there are regular allegations of high-level corruption.
Earlier this year it emerged that billions in foreign aid was being used to fund a Paris property portfolio of scores of its most luxurious houses and flats for African dictators.
They include Ali Bongo, President of Gabon, with at least 39 properties, and Denis Sassou-Nguesso, President of the Republic of the Congo, with 16.
Obiang Nguema’s six-floor period building is used by his family on shopping trips.
He prefers a GBP 2,000-a-night suite at the Plaza Athenee Hotel, off the Champs Elysee.
The astonishing details are in a report handed to Paris prosecutors by anti-corruption groups Transparency International and Sherpa.
They are also investigating claims that Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, both deposed in the Arab Spring, retain numerous homes in France.
Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi is also thought to be a Gallic property owner, as is Syria’s Bashar Al-Assad, who is accused of killing his own subjects.
France has been accused of turning a blind eye to the scandal until now.
Copyright 2011 Express Newspapers