News Review: Black farce of Thatcher and the Wonga Coup

WHEN armed Scorpions, South Africa's elite equivalent of the FBI, raided Sir Mark Thatcher's £2.2 million nine-bedroom house in Cape Town in August 2004 they were surprised at the size of his safe.

The detectives described it as being as big as a double bedroom. The Scorpions were searching for evidence – phone and computer records, diaries and so on – to link Sir Mark to a failed coup to overthrow Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the dictator president of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea.

Sir Mark had built the super-safe when he bought the mansion, in the exclusive Constantia suburb on the slopes of Table Mountain, after being driven out of Texas in 1995 facing allegations of racketeering. A 4 million civil action brought against him in Dallas was settled out of court.

Somehow Sir Mark, who was nicknamed Thickie at Harrow school and left with only three 'O' levels, had heaped up a reputed 60 million fortune while hardly breaking sweat and without ever having run any major corporate business.

But Simon Mann, the former Scots Guards and SAS officer-turned-mercenary, perhaps gave a clue to the style in which Sir Mark acquired his millions in this week's so-called Wonga Coup trial in Equatorial Guinea.

Mann said Sir Mark had been a core member of the plot to overthrow Nguema which, if it had been successful, would have resulted in rewards worth hundreds of millions of dollars to both men and other members of the conspiracy.

The Wonga Coup would have resulted in Mann, Sir Mark and their scores of allies virtually running Equatorial Guinea, a tiny speck of a country on Africa's west coast. Equatorial Guinea, with a population that could just about be squeezed into the national football stadium where public executions also take place, is awash with newly-discovered oil. Some 400,000 barrels are exported each day worth an estimated 30 billion a year. However, the majority of its people have not benefited and barely survive on 50p a day.

One assumption that has been widely examined is that Sir Mark made most of his profits by brokering arms deals, through his company Monteagle Marketing, trading on the name of his mother, Baroness Thatcher, when she was Britain's prime minister, although no-one has ever come up with hard proof.

The Financial Times famously described him as a "sort of Harrovian Arthur Daley with a famous mum." Some have branded him spoilt, pampered and pompous.

Mark Thatcher was born on 15 August 1953, delivered by caesarean section with his twin sister Carol, as his father, the late Sir Denis Thatcher, watched a cricket test match at The Oval.

After his unhappy time at Harrow, Sir Mark subsequently failed his accountancy exams three times with Touche Ross and was dismissed.

He tried different careers, including selling jewellery and then racing cars, travelling to South Africa for races in the early 1970s. After his mother became prime minister in 1979 he began to draw attention to himself, mainly for gaffes.

He was 26 when his mother swept into Downing Street, where he was to cut an unpopular figure along the corridors of power. Mrs Thatcher idolised him and told reporters: "Mark could sell snow to the Eskimos and sand to the Arabs." To those who had to deal with him he was cold, forbidding and arrogant.

He was a particular liability for those in charge of promoting and protecting the Thatcher public image. He once asked Sir Bernard Ingham, Mrs Thatcher's press secretary, how he could help his mother win the 1987 general election. "Leave the country," was Sir Bernard's curt reply.

Mark Thatcher leapt to widespread public attention in 1982 when he and his female co-driver became lost in the Sahara desert while competing in the Paris to Dakar Rally. His mother wept in public for the only time in her premiership until she was deposed and Sir Denis flew to North Africa to join the search party.

Sir Mark had made no preparation for the gruelling event, but refused to admit he was at fault.

A business deal a little earlier involving Oman caused his mother more anguish and prompted more widespread questions about whether the prime minister's son was using 10 Downing Street to unlock doors to riches. Mrs Thatcher, questioned in the Commons, said she was only "batting for Britain", while her son issued statements denying any impropriety.

Three years later, Mrs Thatcher's closest advisers told her Mark must be encouraged to leave Britain. He moved to Texas and a 45,000 a year job selling Lotus cars. He met and married Diane Burgdof but trouble continued to cling to him in Texas. A security company of which he had become a director went bust; he became embroiled in the collapse of an aviation fuels company; and the US Internal Revenue Service began an investigation into alleged unpaid taxes. Thatcher settled the tax case out of court and moved with Diane and their two children to Cape Town. In South Africa police investigated him for an alleged loan shark operation in which he made loans to civil servants at exorbitant rates, sending thugs to collect unpaid debts which accumulated interest at 20 per cent. No prosecution resulted. He gravitated into a friendship with Mann.

Mann persuaded him to part with some 150,000 to hire a helicopter for the attack on the airport at Malabo, Equatorial Guinea's capital.

Sir Mark Thatcher's world went terribly wrong when, on 7 March, 2004, Mann was arrested in Zimbabwe when the plane carrying him and 64 others for the Wonga Coup landed at Harare Airport to pick up arms.

Mann was incarcerated in Zimbabwe's notorious Chikurubi Prison for trying to purchase weapons without a licence. From prison he smuggled out a letter to Sir Mark which read: "Once we get into a real trial scenario we are f****d. The opportunity lies in our deportment from Z (Zimbabwe] to SA (South Africa] … It may be that getting us out comes down to a large splodge of wonga (cash]."

When Dries Coetzee, a private detective hired to collect from Sir Mark the "wonga" needed to spring Mann from Chikurubi, he was told to "f*** off" – which probably accounts for why Mann so heavily implicated Sir Mark in his evidence this week.

After his arrest for involvement in the coup, Sir Mark, threatened with extradition to Equatorial Guinea to face trial, entered a plea bargain with investigators and was fined 250,000 while denying knowledge of the coup plot. His initial 180,000 bail and the fine is widely believed to have been paid by Mrs Thatcher.

Sir Mark sold his Cape Town house after his wife left him and returned to Dallas with their two children. Diane sued successfully for divorce, citing various infidelities. Sir Mark, as a convicted felon, is barred from entry to the US.

Despite his problems his mother took him in before he moved on to Monaco.

He was ordered to leave the principality in 2006 and now lives in a heavily-guarded, 7,000 a month rented villa at Marbella on the Costa del Sol in Spain, although he has run into problems with his landlord over allegations of unpaid rent.

Jose Olo Obono, Equatorial Guinea's attorney-general, has promised that attempts to extradite Sir Mark to stand trial for his part in the Wonga Coup are planned: "He will be pursued wherever he goes."

THE EXPERT'S INSIGHT

Lots of attention and little sympathy

Adam Roberts

Author of The Wonga Coup

LIKE a man waving a golf club in a thunderstorm, Mark Thatcher invites intense and unwelcome attention. For a quarter of a century, since his mother became prime minister, Mark (Sir Mark after his father, Sir Denis, died) has drawn the interest of British journalists.

Intelligence agencies probably keep an eye on him, too, intrigued by his range of business contacts.

A more cautious man than Thatcher might have used the time (between the detention of Simon Mann in Zimbabwe in March 2004 and Thatcher's arrest in Cape Town in August 2004] to slip quietly out of sight. But he lingered, ostrich-like, in Cape Town … (until] … on a chilly 25 August morning a special team of investigators, the Scorpions, pounded at Thatcher's door with journalists and television crews in tow.

He eventually negotiated and accepted a 250,000 fine, or five years in jail.

I interviewed Mark Thatcher three times for my book. He provided much illuminating material.

But few sympathised with him. He lamented to Vanity Fair: "I will never be able to do business again. Who will deal with me?" He said the charges had "destroyed" him, and went on: "I just feel in this particular case like a corpse that's going down Colorado River, and there's nothing I can do about it."

• Based on extracts from The Wonga Coup by Adam Roberts, Profile Books, 9.99

THE INSIDER'S VIEW

'Mark was part of the management'

Simon Mann

Alleged coup leader

"(Mark Thatcher] paid around $350,000. But he was more than just an investor. He came on board completely as part of the management team.

"The first reason I agreed was for money, but secondly because I believed it was right. They knew I would be sympathetic to the story they told about the oil money not getting to the people.

"I was told by Calil that the Spanish government had promised Moto that in the event of a coup they would immediately, the following morning, give international recognition to Moto and send their Civil Guard to Equatorial Guinea to assist him.

"We were expecting a great deal of help from local people. I understand the president's guard is 300-strong and then there's the army. How could I expect to overpower them with just 80 men? I was there simply to protect Moto while he formed his new government.

"From the beginning I was aware of a group at the very top whose identity I did not know. It was clear there were some very important people involved here in Equatorial Guinea. Some senior members of the armed forces, police and cabinet members were involved as well as powerful business contacts here. Calil had a very, very good contact.

"I think the people who are seriously involved and have not faced justice should do so. I've been in prison for four years and I'm not the same man. I'm very, very sorry for what I tried to do and I'm very happy that we failed."

IN QUOTES

"It should be noted that Sir Mark was not charged with any involvement in the attempted coup d'etat in Equatorial Guinea. The plea bargain was entered into solely as a result of his financing of the charter of a helicopter in circumstances where he should have exercised more caution."

– Statement by Sir Mark Thatcher's lawyers in 2005, after the son of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher was fined 265,000 and given a four-year suspended jail term after agreeing to a plea bargain

"If MT's involvement is known, the rest of us and project is likely to be screwed – as a side-issue to people screwing him … Ensure doesn't happen."

– Memorandum written by Mann on 12 January, 2004, outlining the potential risks in the operation that appeared to implicate his friend

"He's not the brightest spark, but by God he knows how to make money. The plain fact is, he's a barrow boy."

– Sir Bernard Ingham's damning verdict on Sir Mark

"We reiterate our view that Simon Mann must bear the consequences of his own actions … Mann and his ilk must fully understand that the days of military coups are indeed over."

– Statement from South Africa's department of foreign affairs

"Basically, he just pisses me off. He is always late with the rent. Under Spanish law I have to wait three months before I can take him to court and he presumably knows that and pays up after two months … If you see him, punch him on the nose from me, would you?"

– Stephen Humberstone, Sir Mark Thatcher's landlord at Casa Flores, the Spanish villa he rented out two years ago

"Leave the country."

– The answer given by Sir Bernard Ingham, then Lady Thatcher's press secretary, when asked by Mark Thatcher what he could do to help his mother win the 1987 election

"Mark could sell snow to the Eskimos, and sand to the Arabs."

– A proud Baroness Thatcher reflecting on the business acumen of her multimillionaire son

KEY WORDS

President Obiang

The target of the coup, whose government has been accused of human rights abuses.

Helicopter

Mark Thatcher pleaded guilty in South Africa in 2005 to helping to charter a helicopter. He agreed it "might be used for mercenary activity".

'The Cardinal'

The nickname given by Simon Mann in court to Ely Calil, a London-based businessman and alleged plot mastermind.

Foreign Military Assistance Act

The South African legislation under which Thatcher was arrested. It bans the nation's residents from taking part in any foreign military activity.

Plea bargain

Thatcher pled guilty to investing in an aircraft without properly investigating what it would be used for.