Bid to Block Naming of 'Coup Bankrollers'

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By Nick Allen, Crime Correspondent, PA News


Lawyers today tried to block moves to unveil more of the supposed financial backers of the alleged coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea.

The oil-rich country’s President Teodoro Obiang had obtained an order for the full details of people paying money into accounts in Guernsey to be disclosed.

They include an as yet unidentified JH Archer who paid nearly £75,000 into a Guernsey based account. Lord Archer has denied involvement in the coup.

President Obiang has already launched a multi-million pound civil action against the alleged coup leader, Simon Mann, and others in the British High Court seeking damages for what he says was an attempt to overthrow him earlier this year.

At Guernsey’s Royal Court today, lawyers representing one of the companies to whom details of payments are being sought accused Equatorial Guinea of trying to use civil proceedings to garner evidence for use in a criminal case against the alleged plotters.
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http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3466546

[seemslikeadream]

1. Mark Thatcher's Coup de Grâce

Mark Thatcher's Coup de Grâce
Take African politics, add oil and famous financiers, and—voilà!—you have a thriller.

Although the coup failed, much remains at stake in the shaky oil state, where offshore drilling began in the early 1990s. Production of about 250,000 barrels per day is projected to nearly double in the next few years. Yet few of the 500,000 residents of the former Spanish colony are feeling flush with petrodollars; most have no plumbing or electricity. "None of the oil revenues have gone into developing the country," says Sarah Wykes, a researcher for the London corporate watchdog group Global Witness.

In July a U.S. Senate investigation into Riggs Bank found that Obiang and his family kept millions of dollars in bank accounts in Washington, D.C., some of which was spent on luxury homes. By last year, according to the Senate report, the accounts controlled by Obiang had ballooned to $700 million. SEC officials have since begun investigating five companies—Marathon Oil, Amerada Hess, ChevronTexaco, Devon Energy, and Exxon Mobil—to determine whether they paid bribes to the ruling clan, including leasing land from an Obiang-controlled company at inflated prices.

The oil companies deny bribing government officials, but such sweetheart deals would not be surprising in Equatorial Guinea. "The big problem for the oil companies is that everything is tightly controlled by the family of the President," says Philippe Vasset, editor of Africa Energy Intelligence, an industry newsletter in Paris. "Maybe ten people are running the country, and nine are close relatives of the President."

If all this sounds like the makings of a paperback thriller, that's hardly a coincidence. One of the alleged coup financiers was thriller author and former British politician Jeffrey Archer. Like Thatcher, Archer has denied involvement. But to Africa watchers the tale of treachery is closer to Danielle Steel, revolving around an ugly family feud raging within Obiang's palace. At stake is who will succeed the President after 25 years of iron rule. "These guys thought it was ripe for a coup, because there was nonstop squabbling in the family," says Vasset. Those eyeing the potential fortunes from the country's oilfields dread that Obiang might install his favored son, Teodorin, who owns a home in Los Angeles, where he started a music company, TNO Entertainment
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/articles/0,15114,693037,00.html