John Bredenkamp’s mansion lies at the end of a private road on the outskirts of the Berkshire village of Sunningdale. It is a ‘millionaire’s row’ of huge houses and winding drives. Bredenkamp’s home is one of the biggest.
The sprawling pile befits a man who is 33rd on Britain’s rich list, higher than Sir Paul McCartney. His 700-million pound personal fortune stems from a business empire that includes top sports management agency Masters International. The last year has been good for him. He was the 19th-fastest riser on the rich list — just behind Richard Branson.
Masters looks after some of the biggest names in sport, such as cricketer Graeme Hick and rugby internationals Ieuan Evans and Mike Catt. Past clients include golfing legends Ernie Els and Nick Price.
But in the eyes of the United Nations, the millionaire mansion and high brick walls hide a dirty secret. Bredenkamp was last week named by a UN report as a key arms trader and a man who has made millions from illegally exploiting the natural resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A UN panel has now recommended imposing a travel ban on him and freezing his personal assets.
It would be a devastating blow for Bredenkamp, a white Zimbabwean who was a former star rugby captain of Rhodesia and has made his home in Britain. Bredenkamp has jealously guarded the secrets of his business empire for years, but last week a UN report described a network trading in weapons and valuable minerals across the war-torn Congo. The trade has helped fuel a conflict that has claimed up to three million lives and been called Africa’s ‘First World War’.
Bredenkamp was shown to enjoy close business links with senior members of Zimbabwe’s army and political elite. Washington has already barred him from entry to the US, along with several senior Zimbabwean officials.
In May 2000 the British Government — increasingly outraged at President Robert Mugabe’s human rights violations and violence against white farmers — imposed an arms embargo on Zimbabwe.
Bredenkamp — who voluntarily co-operated with the UN over the report — has angrily rejected the conclusions that he has been involved in ‘illegal exploitation’ of Congo’s natural resources. He has written to the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan protesting that much of the material in the report is flawed and stating that he aims to contest vigorously his inclusion on any sanctions list. Bredenkamp was born in South Africa in 1940, but moved north to Zimbabwe, then called Rhodesia, as a child.
Whatever the final outcome, the weight of evidence obtained by the UN suggests Bredenkamp faces a struggle to clear his name.
Just half a mile away from his house, Bredenkamp’s business headquarters sit on a corner of a busy road on Sunningdale’s High Street. As with other office blocks in the commuter belt, it is a non-descript redbrick building hinting little at what goes on inside. But it is from here that Bredenkamp runs his complex web of companies that reach out from the Home Counties to Africa and beyond.
Britain’s imposition of an arms embargo on Zimbabwe appeared not to dampen Bredenkamp’s enthusiasm to help prop up Mugabe’s brutal regime. A year after the embargo was passed, Bredenkamp boosted his ever-expanding fortune by concluding a multimillion-pound contract to supply Mugabe’s armed forces with military equipment.
An invoice obtained by the UN and dated 6 July, 2001, reveals that one of Bredenkamp’s Zimbabwean companies, Raceview Enterprises, was supplying Mugabe’s air force with about R37-million worth of camouflage cloth, batteries, fuel, boots and army rations. Most controversially, the UN says it has other documents that prove Bredenkamp provided about R32-million worth of aircraft spares to the Zimbabwean air force. While Bredenkamp is not a British citizen — he carries a Zimbabwean and Dutch passport — the fact he uses Britain as a base for his business activities will be an embarrassment for Ministers who vigorously fought for European Union sanctions against Mugabe.
But potentially the most damaging revelations for the British government are claims by the UN that Bredenkamp benefits from a working relationship with Britain’s largest and most important defence contractor, BAE Systems (formerly British Aerospace). The report discloses that Bredenkamp is an investor in an African company called Aviation Consultancy Services. While the firm’s name sounds innocuous, it is in fact one of the most important arms trading groups in Africa brokering deals between defence firms and governments.
One of ACS’s major clients is BAE Systems, and the UN claims Bredenkamp has used his involvement with ACS to offer to broker sales of BAE military equipment to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The report also claims that BAE breached European Union sanctions by supplying spare parts for Zimbabwean Hawk jets early in 2002.
Both BAE and Bredenkamp deny they have been involved in busting sanctions, but The Observer has learnt that the House of Commons select committee on arms exports is to launch an investigation into the UN allegations. It has described the matter as ”of grave concern”. Opposition MPs have also tabled parliamentary questions to the government to explain the exact nature of the relationship between BAE and Bredenkamp.
For Bredenkamp, the political and public spotlight on his business affairs will be very uncomfortable, although it is not the first time Bredenkamp’s activities have caused outrage. He is alleged to have supplied arms to both sides in the Iraq-Iran war of 1980 to 1988, something he has always denied.
Bredenkamp was born in South Africa in 1940, but moved north to Zimbabwe, then called Rhodesia, as a child. He excelled at sport and captained his school’s rugby team. He later became close to the white Rhodesian regime of Ian Smith as it battled black guerrilla movements. He was in charge of the financial affairs of the Rhodesian army and is alleged to have been involved in sanctions-busting for Smith in return for a valuable concession to export tobacco. Bredenkamp has also always denied these allegations.
In 1993 Bredenkamp sold his tobacco trading firm, Casalee, and set up his main company, Sunningdale-based Breco. The full extent of his business empire is difficult to ascertain, with many of his companies registered in tax havens like the Isle of Man and the British Virgin Islands. However, his company’s website refers to a network of trading operations in oil, property and food that criss-crosses Africa, Eastern Europe and the Far East. But it is his involvement in the Congolese mining industry — along with his arms trading — that now threatens to derail his business ambitions. The UN claims that one of his British Virgin Islands companies, Tremalt, has been illegally exploiting minerals in Congo, such as uranium, cobalt and copper. Bredenkamp denies any wrongdoing and claims all his mining interests are above board. – Guardian Unlimited