Equatorial Guinea Jails Baltasar Engonga For Embezzlement

A court in Equatorial Guinea has sentenced a senior government official, Baltasar Ebang Engonga, to eight years in prison for embezzlement, months after he became notorious over leaked sex tapes with other officials’ wives.

The Bioko provincial tribunal convicted Baltasar Ebang Engonga of diverting money claimed as professional travel expenses for personal use, the supreme court press director Hilario Mitogo told reporters in a WhatsApp message.

Engonga, the married former head of the national financial investigation agency, and five other senior officials were accused of embezzling expenses worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in the oil-rich central African state.

Nicknamed “Bello”, Engonga made world headlines in November with the sex tapes, some of them filmed in his office at the finance ministry, published on social media while he was in detention pending the embezzlement case.

The clips prompted a wave of online parodies, including songs and dances and posts about a spoof virility drug dubbed “Balthazariem”.

Mitogo said the provincial court handed Engonga an eight-year sentence and a fine worth $220,000.