The son of Equatorial Guinea ruler Teodoro Obiang Nguema has commissioned plans tobuild one of the world's most expensive yachts, an NGO said yesterday.
President Obiang's son, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, known as Teodorin, has commissioned plans for a yacht costing $400-million (R2.8-billion), said Global Witness, which works to break the links between resource exploitation and bad governance.
Teodorin, agriculture and forestry minister of the oil-rich country, has placed an order with a German shipyard, the non-governmental organisation said.
The price tag would make it the second most expensive yacht in the world after Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich's mega-yacht Eclipse.
The vessel's basic design was completed in 2009 with a planned delivery date of late 2012, but construction has not yet started, the NGO said.
"Evidence points to corruption by Teodorin on a scale that would not be possible or attractive if countries like Germany and the US were not safe havens in terms of free passage for him and for his questionable private wealth," said Global Witness campaigns director Gavin Hayman.
"That a president's son from such a poor country has ordered this yacht is outrageous extravagance on his part."
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