WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd July, 2021) The United States welcomes the United Kingdom's decision to impose sanctions on five individuals in four nations - Equatorial Guinea, Zimbabwe, Venezuela and Iraq - for excessive corruption, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Thursday.
"We commend the UK's actions today against four corrupt individuals already designated by the United States and a fifth whose US-based assets purchased with corrupt proceeds were successfully forfeited in U.S. courts," Blinken and Yellen said in a joint press release.
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announced the sanctions earlier on Thursday.
"Over 2 percent of global GDP is lost to corruption every single year. Today's action demonstrates the UK's ongoing commitment to the fight against corruption," Raab said in a press release.
Equitorial Guinea Vice President Teodoro Mangue was cited for soliciting bribes and misappropriating state funds to support a lavish lifestyle that included the purchase of a $100 million mansion in Paris and a $38 million private jet, the release said.
In Zimbabwe, business executive Kudakwashe Tagwirei was sanctioned for his company's redemption of government Treasury bills at up to ten times their official value, the release said.
In Venezuela, Alex Saab Morán and Alvaro Pulido Vargas were sanctioned for misappropriating property from programs that provided food and housing to poor Venezuelans at highly inflated prices, the release added.
In Iraq, Nineveh Province Governor Nawfal Al-Sultan was sanctioned for misappropriating public funds earmarked for reconstructions, according to the release.
