A MICHAEL Jackson super-fan who spent £200,000 on the singer’s white glove has had his assets frozen in a corruption crackdown.
Playboy billionaire Teodoro Obiang Mangue, the vice president of Equatorial Guinea, will also face a travel ban after Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab accused him of looting the west African country’s coffers “to fund a lavish lifestyle”.
Obiang, whose father has ruled the oil-rich nation since 1979, amassed a stable of supercars, a £73 million mansion in Paris and a £28 million private jet.
His collection of Michael Jackson memorabilia was thought to be worth £1.5 million.
The Foreign Office said the dictator’s son had spent more than £364 million since 1998 which was “inconsistent with his official salary as a government minister”.
“This includes buying a $100 million mansion in Paris and others around the world, a $38 million private jet, a luxury yacht, dozens of luxury vehicles including Ferraris, Bentleys and Aston Martins and most notoriously, a collection of Michael Jackson memorabilia including a $275,000 crystal-covered glove that Jackson wore on his Bad tour,” the Foreign Office said.
He was one of five people added to the UK’s anti-corruption sanctions yesterday.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said he was targeting individuals “who have lined their own pockets at the expense of their citizens”.
“Corruption drains the wealth of poorer nations, keeps their people trapped in poverty and poisons the well of democracy,” he said.
In 2014 US investigators forced Obiang to surrender $30 million worth of assets, including most of his Michael Jackson memorabilia, a beach front mansion in Malibu and a Ferrari worth $500,000.
But he was allowed to keep the singer’s crystal-encrusted white glove and a Gulfstream jet worth £23million because they were outside of the US.
