Mystery of Archer link to oil coup

[seemslikeadream]

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

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Thatcher, Archer and a very British coup

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'.

more
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,9174,1297579,00.html

Among them is Ely Calil, a London-based oil trader of Lebanese background, who made his fortune in Nigeria and lives in a £12million house in Chelsea.

In June 2002 Mr Calil was arrested by French police investigating payments of millions of pounds in commission by the French oil company Elf Aquitaine to Sani Abacha, the former dictator of Nigeria.

Calil is a former financial adviser to Jeffrey Archer, and one of the most intriguing names on legal documents relates to a payment to Mann’s company, Logo Logistics, from a ‘JH Archer’.

These are the initials of Lord Archer, the Tory peer, convicted perjurer and best-selling author, who is a long-time friend of Lady Thatcher. The payment, for $134,980, was made only four days before the coup attempt.

Lord Archer, attending the Olympic Games in Athens, instructed his lawyer to say that the peer had never met, spoken to or communicated in any way with Mann. But the statement stopped short of saying that he had not paid any money into Mann’s company account.

more
http://news.scotsman.com/columnists.cfm?id=1013152004