How do you fancy owning two Bugatti Veyrons, the fastest and priciest street car in the world, with a top speed of 250mph and a cost of €1m a pop? Or how about splashing out €18m on art formally owned by French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent? How about affording all of this on your monthly salary of €3,200? These are just some of the luxuries enjoyed by Teodorin Obiang, eldest son of the autocratic president of Equatorial Guinea, in his position as the country’s agriculture and forestry minister, which were seized by French authorities in February on suspicions of corruption and money laundering.
In spite of having passed some of the world’s most stringent anti-money laundering regulations, cases like Obiang’s appear all too frequently in the EU. Whilst most country’s anti-money laundering regulations are based on recommendations made by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force, countries in the EU are also governed by an anti-money laundering directive set by Brussels.
Detailed report from Transparency International, link: here