A court in Equatorial Guinea has sentenced Baltasar Ebang Engonga, a senior government official, to eight years in prison for embezzlement, months after he drew global attention over leaked sex tapes involving officials’ wives.
The Bioko provincial tribunal found Baltasar Ebang Engonga guilty of misappropriating funds that had been presented as official travel expenses but were instead diverted for personal use, according to Supreme Court press director Hilario Mitogo.
Engonga, who once headed the national financial investigation agency and is married, was tried alongside five other senior officials. They were accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars in a country heavily reliant on its vast oil wealth.
Reports recalled how Engonga nicknamed Bello, made world “headlines with the sex tapes, some of them filmed in his office at the finance ministry, published on social media while he was in detention pending the embezzlement case.”
The leaked videos triggered a wave of online parodies, inspiring songs, dances, and jokes about a mock virility drug called “Balthazariem.” Mitogo later confirmed that the provincial court sentenced Engonga to eight years in prison and imposed a fine of $220,000.
