From Sex Tapes to Jail Time: Disgraced Equatorial Guinea Official Gets 8-Year Sentence

In a dramatic fall from grace that reads like a movie plot, infamous former official Baltasar Engonga Ebang has been sentenced to eight years behind bars. The ruling comes months after his private life exploded into a very public scandal.

An Equatorial Guinea court has sentenced the infamous Baltasar Ebang Engonga, a former senior government official, to eight years in prison for embezzlement.

The case, which has captivated the nation, first blew up in the court of public opinion before ever reaching a courtroom.

Naija News reports that Engonga went viral last year after sex tapes involving him and several women leaked online.

According to Hilario Mitogo, press director of the Supreme Court, the Bioko provincial tribunal found Engonga guilty of diverting funds meant for professional travel expenses for personal use. It seems the official trips funded more than just business.

He was also fined a whopping $220,000, adding financial pain to his prison time.

Engonga, a former head of the national financial investigation agency—the very man tasked with probing financial crimes—was tried alongside five other senior officials, making this a major corruption scandal.

They were accused of misappropriating hundreds of thousands of dollars in public funds.

The case follows his detention in November, when videos of him with women, including the spouses of other officials, surfaced on social media while investigations into the embezzlement charges were ongoing, turning a financial probe into a full-blown tabloid sensation.