US set to ease travel restrictions on African leader accused of corruption

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is set to give an African leader accused of pilfering his impoverished country's resources to feed a lifestyle of luxury cars, mansions and superyachts a temporary pass on U.S. corruption sanctions to travel to a high-level U.N. gathering in New York and visit other American cities.

Two U.S. officials familiar with the matter said the State Department is processing a one-month sanctions waiver for the vice president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro “Teddy” Nguema Obiang, following recommendations that it is in the U.S. national interest to blunt growing Chinese influence in the West African country and boost American oil and gas business interests there. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration deliberations.

The waiver would allow Obiang — notorious among world leaders accused of corruption for a lavish lifestyle that has attracted the attention of prosecutors in several countries — to travel to cities outside of New York. That includes Miami and Los Angeles, where he has owned property and luxury vehicles, some of which he has had to forfeit in legal proceedings.

While moving to ease restrictions for a much-prosecuted African leader, the Trump administration has cracked down on visas for large numbers of foreigners, including revoking or denying them to people it deems undesirable who are already in the United States or seeking to travel here. That includes denying visas to Palestinian Authority leaders to come to the U.N. meeting this month and considering restrictions on delegations from Iran, Brazil and elsewhere.

Obiang is son and heir apparent to the aging leader of Equatorial Guinea, an impoverished but oil- and gas-rich former Spanish colony. He is in charge of national defense and security and has long faced sanctions from the U.S. and other countries.

His father, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, is Africa’s longest-serving president. He has been in power since 1979 and is accused of widespread corruption and authoritarianism. Despite its oil and gas riches, at least 70% of Equatorial Guinea’s nearly 2 million people live in poverty, while officials, their families and cronies are accused of plundering state resources.

Teddy Obiang in 2017 was convicted of embezzling millions of euros by a French court, which handed him a three-year suspended sentence, a 30-million euro fine and ordered the seizure of his luxury homes and cars in France worth tens of millions of euros. The country has protested the seizures at the International Court of Justice.

In 2023, South Africa confiscated two of the vice president’s villas and a superyacht as part of a successful lawsuit by a South African citizen that accused Equatorial Guinea’s government of unlawful arrest and torture.

Obiang also reached a settlement with the U.S. in 2014 to give up more than $30 million in assets — including a Malibu mansion, a Ferrari and a collection of Michael Jackson memorabilia — that prosecutors said were attained with the proceeds of corruption.

“Through relentless embezzlement and extortion, Vice President Nguema Obiang shamelessly looted his government and shook down businesses in his country to support his lavish lifestyle, while many of his fellow citizens lived in extreme poverty,” then-U.S. Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell said.

“After raking in millions in bribes and kickbacks, Nguema Obiang embarked on a corruption-fueled spending spree in the United States," she said at the time.

The U.S. officials said the decision to move ahead with the waiver was based in part on the fact that China, which is a growing presence in Equatorial Guinea, is seeking to build a naval base there. The proposed base would be China's second in Africa, after Djibouti, but its first ever on the Atlantic Ocean.

The officials said the argument for granting the waiver is that it would build goodwill with Obiang, who is in charge of such decisions, help blunt Russia's increasing influence in Equatorial Guinea and assist U.S. businesses, particularly in the oil and gas sector, maintain, improve and expand their investments there.

The officials said there were concerns that denying the waiver would put a severe strain on U.S. relations with Equatorial Guinea.

The State Department declined to comment, while an email to the Equatorial Guinea presidency was not immediately returned. Neither the embassy nor U.N. mission to Equatorial Guinea could be reached for comment Friday.

The U.S. corruption sanctions against Obiang have included a restriction on the type of visa he has been allowed to get for previous U.N. events: one that confined him to the immediate New York City area and was a cause of embarrassment and concern for Obiang, according to the officials.

Numerous other current and former world leaders and senior government officials are subject to U.S. corruption sanctions and travel restrictions, the most prominent of whom may be Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who is unlikely to travel to the U.S. for the U.N. General Assembly after an American military strike destroyed an alleged Venezuelan drug smuggling vessel this week.

Meanwhile, the administration in recent months has cracked down on student visa holders for anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian activity and tightened requirements for citizens of many countries, saying they require additional security scrutiny or must put up money to show they respect the conditions of their visas.

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Associated Press writer Mark Banchereau in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report.