When the line blurs between an individuals wealth and that of the state, it becomes difficult to estimate how much people in powerful positions are really worth. And when spending habits are literally triple the amount needed to sustain education and health in a country – yes, I said country, not state, town or high-end complex – for a year, we need to start asking questions.
Teodorin Obiang, son of Equatorial Guinea’s long-time dictator is doing just that. With plans to build a superyacht commissioned at $380 million, three times more than what his country spends on health and education combined, dictators and their clans need to take a backseat on luxury spending and asset stashing in foreign banking systems at times like these.
With long-standing relationships with the world’s amiss banking systems going down the drain due to greater legal oversight in the past few years, corrupt dictators found themselves center stage: under discussion at the 2009 G20 meeting in London.
At the meeting, German Chancellor Angela Merkal said that “the days of secret banking are now over,” sending a clear message that corrupt dictators should not be allowed to hide their money in secret Swiss bank accounts, or any bank accounts for that.
It was no surprise that South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, a first time invitee to the meeting, tried to deflect the question on everyone’s mind: How, exactly, will the G20's $250 billion aid package be invested? He was most likely worrying over how the ‘African Dictator Posse’ would try to distribute the money amongst themselves, killing Motlanthe’s short-lived, hopeful efforts.
Once again, dictators find themselves under the spotlight, this time because of their Middle East counterpart’s dirty laundry being aired publicly and their failure to enforce a daily limit on their wives credit cards.
The Contenders
The main contenders of unconsciously lavish spending habits are the billionaire dictators of emerging nations -- those comfortably in power for as long as they can’t remember.
"Money-bags" Mubarak 1981 - 2011
As the dust starts to settle, the hunt for Hosni Mubarak's billions still continues. It could take some time, his fortune is vast and probably spread over many bank accounts. Mubarak, Egypt’s president for 30 years and a contender of billionaire dictators was ousted from power after the 25 January revolution with a rumored $70 billion.
There is no solid evidence that this amount is accurate (Swiss bank accounts believed to belong to Mubarak have been frozen). Given his paltry salary of $800, it would seem unlikely he could have such a sum, indeed he would have to serve 52500000 years in office to accrue that much capital.
However, there’s no doubt that he got rich from the sale of hundreds of public assets to private companies during his privatization campaign in the 90’s according to Samer Soliman a professor of political economy at American University in Cairo, as reported the New York Times. Not on his $800 a year salary.
A blog post by Forbes magazine poked holes in Mubarak’s monetary rumors, estimating Mubarak’s family fortune at $55 billion. That's more than King Abudullah of Saudi, the man who tops the list of richest rulers in this region and sits on the world's most prized material prize i.e. oil. That just makes no sense to me. I had to use Forbes as a source; if I share that same opinion without a big name backing me up I would be asked, politely of course, to shut up.
With estates in London, New York, Beverly Hills and Sharm El Sheikh, and reported billions in his sons Gamal and Alaa names, we‘ve got to give Mubarak credit for building his fortune in a mere 30 years. It’s no easy task.
Bourgeois Bin Ali 1987 - 2011
Now it wouldn’t be right to ignore former Tunisian President El Abidine Ben Ali, would it? He was overthrown because of just that. Violent protests were partly sparked by the Ben Alis' outrageous consumption, and his wife Leila didn’t help by withdrawing one-and-a-half tons of gold before fleeing the country.
The Swiss government and the European Union ordered the seizing of his bank accounts days after he was ousted. But wait, why now? Switzerland, the European Union and the even United States wait until these dictators are out of power to get ethical? It’s all very well to punish them, the people need their money back, but it would have been both honorable and more accountable to do it while they were still riding high. I thought these were the systems of government we would shape our country after.
US ambassador to Tunisia from 2006 to 2009 Robert Godec wrote a cable in June 2008, leaked by Wikileaks, stating, "Corruption in Tunisia is getting worse. Whether it's cash, services, land, property, or yes, even your yacht, President Ben Ali's family is rumored to covet it and reportedly gets what it wants. President Ben Ali's extended family is often cited as the nexus of Tunisian corruption. Often referred to as a quasi-mafia, an oblique mention of 'the family' is enough to indicate which family you mean.”
Obviously we need not worry about the Bin Ali entourage—they made it out safely to dictator haven ‘Saudi Arabia’ with a fortune of $8 billion from real estate, factories, hotels, banks and of course the gold bars.
Khadafy, Qaddafi, Quadhafi or Gaddafi? 40 years in power - present
Anwar Sadat former President of Egypt once described Muammar al-Gaddafi as "100 percent sick and possessed by the devil." So until the Libyan dictator falls from power, I would rather keep my mouth shut. I have heard all the stories, I don’t want to partake in them.
I just want to say two things about the Gaddafi clan: His son spent a pretty hefty fee for a Beyonce Knowles performance in a private party in St. Barth. And the man is rumored to be worth $80 billion. Oil makes people rich.
For many countries, corrupt billionaire dictators are the elephant in the room. If we all know it, isn’t it time to acknowledge it? The contenders don’t stop with the ones mentioned above, the list is long and I’m running out of space.
