Teodoro Nguema Obiang, Forest and Agriculture Minister for Equatorial New Guinea, visits the US frequently. Increasingly his visits are becoming a bone of contention with certain parts of the Obama administration.

Obiang owns a $35 million estate in Malibu, California, a fleet of luxury cars, speedboats and a private jet.  He has been accused of making money illegally through extensive oil and gas reserves discovered more than a decade and a half ago off the coast of his tiny West African country.

How can he be granted a US visa? Susan Pittman, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement in the State Department answers that she was prohibited from discussing specific US visa decisions. But other former and current State Department officials said Equatorial New Guinea’s close ties to the American oil industry were the reason for the lax enforcement of the law. Production of the country’s nearly 400,000 barrels of oil a day is dominated by American companies like ExxonMobil, Hess and Marathon.

“Of course it’s because of oil,” said John Bennett, who was the United States ambassador to Equatorial Guinea from 1991 to 1994. He also added that Washington has turned a blind eye to the Obiangs’ corruption and repression because of its dependence on the country for natural resources.

This shows that the US visa and US immigration policies have loopholes. Influential people are taking advantage of these loopholes.  When asked from officials how many times a regular check was performed, they refused to answer for they do not disclose their internal policies publicly. The same answer was answered when asked about the number of times an official has been debarred from entering US.

According to the Justice Department Memorandum From April 2005 to April 2006, it says ’Mr. Obiang funneled at least $73 million into the United States, using shell corporations and offshore bank accounts to launder the money and ultimately buy his Malibu estate and a luxury jet.”

The document also identified several wire transfers by Mr. Obiang from 2005 and 2006, beginning with a bank in Equatorial Guinea, then going to the central Banque de France and landing in American accounts at Wachovia, Bank of America and UBS. In one six-week period in 2006, Mr. Obiang transferred $33,799,799.99 to the United States, it said, which was used to buy a Gulfstream V jet. Take note, it seems money can buy you a US visa.