The Republic of Equatorial Guinea has detained three employees of the French bank Société Générale de Banques en Guinée Equatoriale (SGBGE) for transferring confidential banking information to third parties outside the country.
The information involved the private data of several high-ranking members of the Government of Equatorial Guinea, including the Vice President, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue.
The transfer of private information violates the internationally recognized right of the confidentiality of bank data, which must be kept secure by banks and their employees.
The SGBGE employees will testify before the Equatorial Guinea Ministry of Justice in the coming days.
Société Générale is a French multinational banking and financial services company based in Paris, where the Vice President has been accused of money laundering. The Republic of Equatorial Guinea has called on France to withdraw the charges against the Vice President.