The British mercenary Simon Mann, who faces up to 10 years in jail on Friday for trying to buy arms to overthrow the president of Equatorial Guinea, contributed $500 000 to the plot, according to a list of alleged financiers believed to be in the hands of the South African police.
Ely Calil, the London-based Lebanese oil millionaire who is being sued in London by the Equatorial Guinea regime, is alleged to have raised another $750 000.
The allegations come from the so-called ”wonga list”, written by one of those involved, which claims to name the millionaire backers of the aborted coup.
The list is said to have been handed over to South African police by two former colleagues of Mann who have turned state’s evidence.
Calil’s solicitor said on Thursday night that he did not wish to respond to the claim that he had raised money for the plotters. But he denied any knowledge of the plot.
According to the London newsletter Africa Confidential, Calil is considering suing those Equatorial Guinean officials who have accused him of financing the plot.
Other alleged financiers on the list include Calil’s Lebanese associate Karim Fallaha, London businessman Greg Wales, London-based property dealer Gary Hersham — a former business partner of Calil’s — and a South Africa-based British businessman, David Tremain. Each is alleged to have raised $500 000. Tremain is alleged to have been ”fronting” for a syndicate of South African and other minor investors.
Hersham, who runs Beauchamps, a prominent Mayfair estate agency, denies investing any money or knowing of a coup. He says he helped Mann try to raise cash by introducing him to a banker in order to mortgage his £800 000 London house in Portobello Road, Notting Hill.
That failed, and Mann is said to have eventually raised the money against shares he owned in diamond concessions.
Fallaha could not be contacted on Thursday. He is a director of Asian Trading and Investment in Beirut, which signed a contract with Simon Mann to invest $5-million in West African projects. Other than the appearance of his name on the list, there is nothing to suggest he had any involvement in the coup.
Wales and Tremain deny any involvement in the coup.
Mann, an Old Etonian and former SAS officer, was arrested at Harare airport in March along with 67 mercenaries and three air crew while waiting for a delivery of weapons.
Prosecutors said Equatorial Guinea’s opposition leader, Severo Moto, based in Spain, offered the group $1,8-million and oil rights to overthrow the government.
Prosecutors have demanded that Mann should be given 10 years when he is sentenced on Friday in a makeshift courthouse at Chikuribi maximum security prison in Harare. His lawyers have asked for a fine.
It is believed some of Mann’s supporters hope eventually to ransom him out of prison in Zimbabwe. This will involve waiting several months for the ”noise” surrounding his arrest to die down, before making an attempt to see if a little cash would help to improve his accommodation, food and medical care inside Chikuribi, where his home since March has been a solitary confinement cell.
The second phase would then involve sending a negotiator to Zimbabwe to try to do a ”deal” to secure Mann’s release.
Mark Thatcher, who has been charged in South Africa with helping to fund the plot via a payment to a third party, has been subpoenaed to answer questions on September 22. He denies any involvement or knowledge of the coup.
Questions will be submitted to a magistrate by the Equatorial Guineans, who would then be permitted to listen to his answers.
Meanwhile, a court in Guernsey will continue a hearing on Monday in which Mann’s lawyers are fighting to prevent disclosure of his offshore deposit boxes and bank accounts.
Earlier bank details disclosed showed that a JH Archer made a payment of £80 000 into the account of a company owned by Mann, in the days before the failed coup attempt. Jeffrey Archer, a friend of Calil’s, has denied any knowledge of the coup, but has so far failed to deny that the money came from him. – Guardian Unlimited Â