In late 2011, top U.S. Department of Justice officials trumpeted the government’s effort to seize millions of dollars in assets belonging to a top public official in Equatorial Guinea. Now a federal trial judge in Washington has dealt prosecutors a setback.

U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras in Washington ruled against the government in a fight over a $38.5 million Gulfstream jet that prosecutors contend the official, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, obtained through corruption.