Mystery of Archer link to oil coup

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Antony Barnett and Patrick Smith
Sunday September 5, 2004
The Observer

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Investigators probing the backers of the alleged coup in Equatorial Guinea will discover this week what role - if any - disgraced Tory peer Lord Archer played in financing the plot that led to the arrest of Sir Mark Thatcher 11 days ago. Lawyers acting for the President of the oil-rich African state have gone to court to discover the identities of those who made payments into the offshore account held by former SAS officer Simon Mann, the mercenary leader who is accused of masterminding the alleged coup.

Mann's lawyers have tried to prevent any details from being revealed, but the Guernsey authorities are likely to force the bank to provide all the details on Tuesday. Although Archer has denied any 'prior knowledge' of the alleged coup, just four days before the mercenary group was set to act an individual named JH Archer paid $134,980 into the Guernsey bank account of Logo Limited at the Royal Bank of Scotland in St Peter Port, held by Mann. The peer's first two names are Jeffrey Howard.

The 3 March transfer, worth nearly £75,000, was one of a number of significant payments in the months leading up to the arrests of the men allegedly plotting a coup that planned to overthrow President Obiang and replace him with the exiled opposition leader Severo Moto. If the coup was successful those backing the project stood to make huge profits from favourable oil concessions.

Thatcher, the son of the former Prime Minister, was arrested in South Africa at the end of last month over claims he helped to finance the plot. A company Thatcher was involved in made a $100,000 payment into Mann's Guernsey account.

Lawyers acting for Obiang are also examining the possibility that the Archer payment could be linked to his son James who shares his father's initital - a claim dismissed by one of Archer's advisers as 'highly unlikely'. James was banned from working in the City in 2001 after he was accused of trying to rig the Swedish Stock Exchange while working for Credit Suisse First Boston. City regulators concluded he was 'not fit and proper' after an investigation into the activities of a flamboyant set of stockbrokers known as the Flaming Ferraris, named after a rum cocktail.

Archer's son could not be con tacted. Lawyers acting for the peer have repeatedly stressed that he has never met or communicated with Mann or with his firm, and that he had no 'prior knowledge' of any coup. His lawyers have also stated that he has not spoken to Mark Thatcher for 'approximately 10 years'. ...........
As well as tracing alleged payments from Archer and Thatcher, they are focusing on two payments made by a company called Hermitage. This mysterious firm made two payments of $150,000 in December 2003. Lawyers point out that the payments do not prove those responsible knew or were involved in the coup, but that they may provide clues as to what Mann's plans were. Thatcher is alleged to have made his payment through a firm called Triple A - an air ambulance firm run by former mercenary pilot Crause Steyl.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1297578,00.html