Rossport Is Not Alone

international | anti-capitalism | other press Thursday February 05, 2009 22:23 by C.D. Stelzer

Marathon Drills from One End of the Atlantic to the Other

Marathon Oil Co., which holds an 18.5 percent stake in the controversial Shell Corrib natural gas pipeline off the west coast of Ireland, also has an interest in off-shore oil wells within the territorial waters of the tiny African nation of Equatorial Guinea.

In 2004, Marathon and its partners were involved in a scandal over illegal payments to government officials in Equatorial Guinea. President Teodoro Obiang Nguemea Mbasogo and family members were the main recipients of the oil company's largess.

In 2004, a U.S. Senate committee investigation found Riggs Bank in Washington, DC to be engaged in money laundering by permitting the withdrawal of $35 million by accounts linked to the Equatorial Guinea embassy.

Mbasogo has ruled the country as a dictator since instigating a coup against his uncle in 1979. After the takeover, he ordered his uncle's execution, and is considered a tyrant equal to Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has recently issued a warning that Equatorial Guinea is involved in slave trade and possibly the sexual exploitation of women and children.

Interestingly, the agency is reported to have had dealings with Riggs Bank, the financial institution that was fined millions of dollars for its part in Mbasogo's money-laundering scheme in 2004-2005.

Mbasogo gained his vast wealth, estimated at more thant $600 million, from alleged pay offs from the oil companies in exchange for his permission to operate in Equatorial Guinea.