Read The Wonga Coup Online

Authors: Adam Roberts

The Wonga Coup

The Wonga
*
Coup

‘Adam Roberts shows, with merciless precision, how the dogs of war panicked where they should have been cool, and screwed up where they should have been clinically efficient' –
Observer

‘Impressively researched and briskly narrated … takes readers into a world where slippery chancers and thuggish ex-special forces types, mostly South African, rub shoulders with the spooks and dodgy financiers' –
Daily Mail

‘The most terrifying thing about this chronicle of a failed coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea is that it's not a Graham Greene novel but a true story. An irresistibly lurid tale … he lifts the curtain to the backrooms of power in postcolonial Africa' –
Publishers Weekly

‘A fact-stranger-than-fiction tale … the author has amassed impressive, and readable, detail about the plot, its costs and its personalities' –
Financial Times

‘
The Wonga Coup
is a forceful example of how a group of rapacious Europeans can hatch a fantastic plan to overthrow a foreign government, gain the tacit support of Western officials – not to mention international corporations – and fully expect to succeed in executing their grandiose vision' –
New York Times

ADAM ROBERTS
works for
The Economist
in London. He was Johannesburg bureau chief at the magazine for four years.

The Wonga Coup

Simon Mann's Plot to Seize Oil Billions in Africa

ADAM ROBERTS

To E and to M

This revised edition published in 2009

First published in Great Britain in 2006 by
PROFILE BOOKS LTD

3
A
Exmouth House

Pine Street

Exmouth Market

London EC1R 0JH

www.profilebooks.com

Copyright © Adam Roberts, 2006, 2009

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Typeset in Palatino by MacGuru Ltd
[email protected]

Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Bookmarque Ltd, Croydon, Surrey

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 84668 234 6

Contents

Maps

List of Characters

Prologue

PART ONE:
The Ocean of Oil

1. The Rise of Mann

2. Mad Uncle Macias

3. The Albatross of War

4. Obiang in Charge

5. The Gushing Prize

PART TWO:
The Three Hundred Days

6. Smelly and the Priest

7. Assembling the Wongamen

8. Plans and Documents

9. Future Moto

10. Filthy Lucre

11. Enter Scratcher

12. Money and Recruits

13. Spain

14. Get Your Guns

PART THREE:
The Big Push

15. Strike One

16. The Wonga Coup (Mark One)

17. The Wonga Coup (Mark Two)

18. Playa Negra Pedicure

19. Send Me a Splodge

20. Smiling and Dying

21. Riggs and the Oil Firms

22. The Price of Failure

23. Thatcher Falls

24. Back from the Dead

Postscript:
Malabo Sunset

Writing
The Wonga Coup

Selected Bibliography

Index

Locations of the Wonga Coup, Africa and Europe, 2004

List of Characters

Selected characters, by location, as of Sunday 7 March 2004.

Zimbabwe

Harry Carlse

Ex-special forces soldier and former Executive Outcomes employee. Fought beside Simon Mann (below) in Angola; also in Iraq. Ex-nightclub bouncer, assistant to Mann. South African. a.k.a. The Enforcer.

Victor Dracula

Decorated soldier of 32 Battalion, long fought in Angola. Naturalised South African.

Simon Mann

Ex-Executive Outcomes and SAS. Active notably in Angolan war in early 1990s. Mastermind of the Wonga Coup. Old Etonian and friend of many others involved. British/South African. a.k.a. Captain F.

J. Samukange

Lawyer and aspiring politician. Zimbabwean.

Niel Steyl

Ex-Executive Outcomes in Angola. Grey-haired pilot of Boeing 727 for Indian tycoon. Brother of Crause Steyl (see below, Canary Islands). South African.

Simon Witherspoon

Ex-special forces soldier and professional hunter. South African.

South Africa

James Kershaw

Mann's young administrative assistant. Friend of Morgan and friend of Smith (below). South African.

Nigel Morgan

Intelligence trader and
bon vivant
. Close to South African government, ex-military intelligence. Close friend of Mann and Thatcher (below). British. a.k.a. Nosher, Captain Pig.

Johann Smith

Intelligence trader close to governments of Equatorial Guinea and South Africa. Ex-military intelligence. South African. a.k.a. Peg Leg.

Sir Mark Thatcher

Businessman and friend of Mann and Morgan. Financier of helicopter intended by others for use in coup plot. Son of Baroness Thatcher. British. a.k.a. Scratcher.

Equatorial Guinea

‘Bones' Boonazier

Ex-sergeant major in South African army. Worked for du Toit (below) in Equatorial Guinea. South African. First name Marthinus. a.k.a. Bones.

Sergio Cardoso

Ex-South African special forces and mercenary. Thought to be second in command to du Toit. Sao Tomean.

Nick du Toit

Ex-South African special forces. Arms dealer and friend of Mann. Front man in Equatorial Guinea. South African. a.k.a. Niek, Nicky, Nik.

Gerhard Merz

Aviation broker, business partner of du Toit and chemical weapons trader. German.

Obiang Nguema

Long-standing president of Equatorial Guinea, nephew of Macias (see below). Equatorial Guinean.

Macias Nguema

Ex-president and genocidal dictator of Equatorial Guinea (1968–79). Equatorial Guinean.

Teodorin Nguema

Elder son of, and likely successor to, Obiang. Playboy. Equatorial Guinean.

Armengol Nguema

Younger brother of Obiang and business partner of du Toit. Equatorial Guinean.

Spain and Canary Islands

Severo Moto

Trained priest. Aspiring president of Equatorial Guinea, exiled in Madrid. Friend of Ely Calil (see United Kingdom, below).

Crause Steyl

Pilot. Ex-Executive Outcomes. Brother of Niel Steyl and friend of Mann. Self-confessed plotter of the Wonga Coup. South African.

David Tremain

Businessman. Friend of Mann and alleged financier and coup plotter. Wanted in South Africa. British.

Greg Wales

Accountant. Ex-Executive Outcomes. Friend of Mann and fellow plotter. Wanted in South Africa. British. a.k.a. Oil Slick, Charles Burrows.

United Kingdom

Jeffrey Archer

Novelist, politician, member of the House of Lords and convicted perjurer. Accused of putting funds into Mann's bank account a few days before the launch of the coup. British.

Ely Calil

Tycoon and friend of Moto, Archer, Mandelson, Mann and Thatcher. Well-connected in west Africa. Accused by Equatorial Guinea of being the chief financier of the plot. Lebanese–Nigerian. a.k.a Khalil, Smelly, the Cardinal.

Frederick Forsyth

Bestselling novelist; author of
The Dogs of War
, about a coup plot in west Africa. Suspected plotter of 1973 coup attempt against Equatorial Guinea. British.

France

Henry Page

Lawyer for the government of Equatorial Guinea, based in Paris. British.

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