Suspended Director-General of Equatorial Guinea’s National Financial Investigation Agency (ANIF), Baltasar Ebang Engonga, has been sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of embezzlement, months after he drew global attention over leaked sex tapes involving the wives of other officials.
Hilario Mitogo, press director of the Supreme Court, said the Bioko provincial tribunal found Engonga guilty of diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars in public funds earmarked for official travel expenses.
He was also fined $220,000. Engonga, who served as head of the national financial investigation agency, was tried alongside five other top officials accused of misappropriating state resources in the oil-rich Central African nation.
His notoriety spread in November when explicit videos—some allegedly recorded inside his finance ministry office—went viral while he was in detention awaiting trial.
Many of the women filmed were wives and relatives of people close to the centre of power.
In many of the videos that were shared online, it appeared some were aware they were being filmed having sex with Baltasar Engonga, who is also known as “Bello” because of his good looks.
Engonga is a nephew of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema and one of those thought to be hoping to replace him.
Obiang is the world’s longest-serving president, having been in power since 1979.
