Baltasar Engonga gets 8 years jail term for sex tape, embezzlement

A court in Equatorial Guinea on Wednesday, August 27, sentenced senior government official Baltasar Ebang Engonga to eight years in prison for embezzlement.

According to AFP, the Bioko provincial tribunal found Engonga guilty of diverting public funds, specifically travel allowances, for personal use.

The verdict was confirmed by Hilario Mitogo, press director of the Supreme Court, in a message to reporters.

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Engonga, who once headed the national financial investigation agency, faced trial alongside five other high-ranking officials accused of misappropriating hundreds of thousands of dollars in a country heavily reliant on oil revenues.

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The disgraced official, widely known by the nickname “Bello”, previously gained international notoriety when explicit sex tapes allegedly recorded with the wives of other officials surfaced online while he was in detention.

Some videos were reportedly filmed in his office at the finance ministry.

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The scandal fuelled a wave of viral reactions across social media, including parody songs, dances, and memes mocking a fictitious potency drug dubbed “Balthazariem”.

In addition to his prison term, the court imposed a fine of $220,000 on Engonga.