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BBVA blocked an account of Obiang's son on suspicion of money laundering

2023-02-09T04:44:36.558Z


Carmelo Ovono Obiang, investigated for kidnapping and torture, entered large amounts in cash and 500-euro bills


The President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, during an election campaign event on November 20. EQUATORIAL GUINEA INFORMATION AND PRESS OFFICE

BBVA blocked one of the accounts of Carmelo Ovono Obiang, one of the sons of the president of Equatorial Guinea and investigated by the National Court for the kidnapping and torture of four opponents of his father's regime, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, on suspicion that that bank deposit was being used to launder money.

The alarms went off last summer, when Ovono, Secretary of State for the Presidency and head of the Equatoguinean secret service abroad and resident in Spain, began to enter large amounts of money in cash and in 500-euro bills, as they told EL COUNTRY research sources.

More information

Juan Carlos Ondo, former Guinean judge: "Torture is a common practice in Obiang"

The bank took this initiative months before it was revealed that Judge Santiago Pedraz, head of the Central Court of Instruction 5 of the National Court, was investigating the dictator's son for kidnapping and torture together with the Minister of State, Nicolás Obama Nchama, responsible for Internal security;

and Isaac Nguema Endo, General Director of Security.

The bank's executives decided on the blockade by taking into account the condition of Ovono of PEP (Politically Exposed Person, in banking jargon) for holding a high position in the Government of Equatorial Guinea and being the son of an autocrat of Equatorial Guinea since 1979. .

The court learned of the blocking of this account after the magistrate ordered the preventive seizure of all Ovono Obiang deposits in Spain.

The account is in the name of the company Dereck Edita Hermanos, of which Ovono is the administrator and whose declared corporate purpose is the rental of real estate.

On June 1, 2022, the bank detected "an unusual operation of income in cash and high-denomination bills", according to the letter that BBVA has just sent to the judge.

"Once the operations of said company and its owner Carmelo Ovono Obiang have been analyzed, the account is blocked as the client's operations are not duly justified," says the bank's explanation.

BBVA, where Ovono had five accounts, has declined to answer questions from this newspaper.

Currently,

Carmelo Ovono, aka

Didi

, 44, was the first chief of the Bata Special Forces and obtained residency in Spain in 2020. He is married to a Spanish woman and has a daughter.

He lives between Marbella and Malabo and owns homes and other properties in Barcelona and Toledo.

To obtain the resident certificate, he presented an account with a balance of 431,378 euros at BBVA.

During the police surveillance to which he has been subjected throughout the investigation, he was always accompanied by a Spanish driver and a Lebanese escort.

The latter were detected on several occasions buying material at La Tienda del Espía, in Madrid.

The police assure in their reports that Ovono and his collaborators spied on several of the opponents of the regime residing in Spain.

For years,

Reports from the Police General Information Station affirm that Carmelo Ovono and the other two senior officials traveled on the presidential plane in which two Spanish citizens and opponents of the regime were taken from South Sudan to Malabo (Equatorial Guinea) captured in 2020 through deception in that country.

And that all of them participated in their torture sessions in the Mongomo prison where they remain prisoners serving long sentences for an alleged coup d'état.

Julio Obama, 61, one of them, died on January 15, in circumstances not yet clarified by the Government, after this newspaper revealed the judicial investigation against the leadership of the Guinean Ministry of the Interior.

Waiting for the repatriation of a corpse

On January 19, Judge Pedraz asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to request the preservation and repatriation of Julio Obama's body to Spain for an autopsy.

After more than two weeks, the body of the Spanish opponent still has not arrived and official sources from Foreign Affairs decline to comment on whether the Obiang regime is going to meet his request.

The Government asked the Obiang executive to clarify Obama's death and requested that the sentences of the other convicts be commuted, but it has not received a response.

Sources close to the family say that Mongomo prison officials unsuccessfully tried for Obama's relatives in Equatorial Guinea to receive his body when his death was reported.

The relatives interpret that the regime tries to avoid the repatriation of the body.

Pedraz also asked the General Directorate of Consular Affairs to "inform him of the state of health and whereabouts of the other three victims."

They are Feliciano Efa Mangue, 43, and the Equatorial Guineans residing in Madrid Martín Obiang Mbasogo, 45, and Bienvenido Ndong Ondo, 43. All sentenced to between 60 and 90 years in prison in a hearing disputed by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.


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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2023-02-09

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