From Scandal to Prison: Why top Eq. Guinea official Baltasar bags jail term

Ebang Engonga, once a powerful figure in Equatorial Guinea’s financial system, is trading his executive chair for a prison cell.

A provincial court on Wednesday slammed him with an eight-year jail term and a hefty fine after finding him guilty of embezzling public funds disguised as travel expenses.

Engonga, popularly nicknamed “Bello”, had already been in the eye of a storm last year when a string of explicit videos, some allegedly recorded in his own office, leaked online, sparking outrage, memes, and even parody songs across the country.

The latest conviction ties together a spectacular fall from grace: from running the agency tasked with investigating shady finances, to being exposed in both financial and personal scandals that rocked the oil-rich state.

Five other senior officials are also implicated in the embezzlement case, but it is Engonga’s notoriety that has made him the face of corruption and excess in Malabo.