HOT WHEELS
Fleet of 25 supercars seized from dictator’s playboy son in money-laundering probe flogged off for £22million in Switzerland
A FLEET of supercars seized from a dictator’s playboy son sold for £21.9million at an auction today.
A total of 25 cars which had belonged to Teodorin Nguema Obiang, the son of Equatorial Guinea’s ruler Tedoro Obiang Nguema, who has been in power for 40 years, went under the hammer in Switzerland.
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The cars, which included Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Bentleys and Rolls Royces fetched around £21.9m ($27m) in total at the auction held at the Domaine de Bonmmont golf club on the edge of Geneva, Switzerland.
The cars had been seized as part of a money-laundering investigation into the son.
One of the cars, a 2014 white Lamborghini Veneno Roadster, which was described as “rare and remarkable” sold for £6.8m ($8.3m) to an anonymous buyer.
The car, which can reach 220mph, came out to mark the company’s 50th anniversary and only nine were ever built.
An Aston Martin One-77 Coupe, which the auctioneer James Knight described as an “absolute rocket ship,” sold for £1.2m ($1.5m).
A black 2015 Koenigsegg One-1 fetched £3.8m.
A grey armoured 1998 Rolls Royce Silver Spur in need of repair - and described by Knight as "perfect for someone who doesn't have any friends or has enemies" - went for £70,862.
A press officer for the auction house Bonhams said: "Cars like this would be the jewel of any collection, but to have them all together is really quite extraordinary.”
The cars attracted interest from collectors around the world, especially Europe.
A Swiss bidder said several of the supercars were bought by an agent for a collector in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Geneva prosecutors said in February that they had closed an inquiry into Teodoro Nguema Obiang for money laundering and misappropriation of public assets with an arrangement to sell the cars to fund social programmes in the west African state.
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Rights groups have labelled the president’s administration as one the world's most corrupt.
His son, 51, served as an adviser to his father and minister for agriculture, before being appointed vice-president in 2012.
In 2017, a French court handed him a three-year suspended jail term for corruption.
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