Baltasar Ebang Engonga, a high-ranking government official once at the helm of Equatorial Guinea’s national financial investigation agency, has been sentenced to eight years in prison for embezzlement, following months of public scandal triggered by leaked sex tapes.
The Bioko Provincial Tribunal found Engonga — widely known by his nickname “Bello” — guilty of misappropriating funds intended for official travel and redirecting them for personal use. He was also slapped with a $220,000 fine, according to Hilario Mitogo, the Supreme Court’s press director
The sentencing comes months after Engonga made international headlines in November 2024, when explicit sex tapes surfaced online. The footage, reportedly filmed inside his Ministry of Finance office, showed Engonga in intimate encounters with women believed to be the spouses of other senior officials. At the time, he was already in detention awaiting trial.
Engonga was charged alongside five other top government officials in a case involving the embezzlement of hundreds of thousands of dollars from state coffers. The oil-rich nation has long been under scrutiny for corruption, with watchdog groups citing a lack of financial transparency and political accountability.
This conviction marks one of the rare instances in Equatorial Guinea where a senior official has faced serious legal consequences for financial crimes.
The government has not yet released a formal statement regarding the broader investigation or the fate of the co-accused.
