The plan was to get rid of Equatorial Guinea's brutal dictator Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, and install the exiled Severo Moto as the new puppet president, who promised to give his foreign backers oil riches after he had become president.
The most interesting funder of the coup is the son of Lady of the Garter, former British PM Margaret Thatcher, Sir Mark Thatcher.
Mark Thatcher first denied all accusations, but then pleaded guilty to financing the coup plot in Equatorial Guinea in a South African court, for which he was fined without going to prison!
The suspect names came from the so-called "Wonga list" (after which the coup was named) by James Kershaw, who was Simon Mann's accountant. Mann was the prime suspect and fall guy, and the close friend of Mark Thatcher. Mann had worked for British Intelligence (SAS).
Kershaw was recruited by Nigel Morgan, another friend of Mann, who in turn was connected to the South African Secret Service.
While both Britain and the US denied orchestrating the plot, they don't deny that they received a full detailed plan months before the Wonga coup would be staged, including the dates, details of arms shipments and key players.
In December 2003 and January 2004, 2 highly detailed reports of the planned coup, from former commander in South African Special Forces Johann Smith, were sent to British intelligence (Jack Straw) and to a senior aide of then US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Equa ... at_attempt
Mark Thatcher continued to deny involvement in the attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea. Despite evidence that he frequently telephoned several of the key conspirators in the coup.
One of the conspirators Mark Thatcher called is the disgraced Tory peer Lord Archer. The same Jeffrey Howard Archer paid about £74,000 to the account of Simon Mann, the alleged ringleader of the coup.
According to Crause Steyl:
.I met Mark (Thatcher) three or four times. He was a partner in the venture. He put in about $250,000. The money was wired to my company account in various installments.
Mark Thatcher himself transferred about $285,000 to the mercenaries that would execute the coup: https://web.archive.org/web/20080228120 ... 25!7001!-1
All things considered, things were looking bad for the boy of Baroness Thatcher, he looked to be imprisoned in a not so luxurious Equatorial Guinea jail.
So Mark pleaded guilty "to "unwittingly" attempting to finance the coup plot by buying a helicopter for the alleged coup plotters", and was given a four-year "suspended sentence" and a fine of about $560,000 (that mama paid): http://www.afrol.com/articles/15309
Simon Mann was arrested on the airport of the capital of Zimbabwe, Harare. On the Boeing 727 were 64 former South African mercenaries, who had fought for the apartheid regime. It stopped in Harare to load the rifles, mortar bombs, rocket launchers and ammunition needed for the coup onto the plane.
Simon Mann’s buddy and neighbour in South Africa was none other than Mark Thatcher. They were also business partners.
Exiled politician Severo Moto was waiting in a neighbouring country ready to fly by helicopter to Equatorial Guinea after the coup had made him President. Mark Thatcher deposited $100,000 dollars into Mann’s account for a helicopter, probably to fly Moto to Equatorial Guinea.
On 31 March 2004, Simon Mann wrote from Zimbabwe's prison to his wife and lawyers:
"Scratcher" was a not so subtle reference to Sir Mark Thatcher and "Smelly" referred to Ely Calil.Our situation is not good and it is very URGENT. It may be that getting us out comes down to a large splodge of wonga! Of course investors did not think this would happen. Did !? .... They [the lawyers] get no reply from Smelly and Scratcher [who] asked them to ring back after the Grand Prix race was over!......We need heavy influence of the sort that ... Smelly, Scratcher ... David Hart and it needs to be used heavily and now. Once we get into a real trial scenario we are fucked.
David Hart, a millionaire property developer, was a journalist for "The Times" and an adviser to Mark's PM mother Thatcher during the 1984 miners’ strike.
Nick du Toit introduced Mann to a Zimbabwean arms dealer and paid a £100,000 deposit for the weapons. Du Toit's business partner was a minister in Equatorial Guinea. After Mann’s arrest in Zimbabwe, the authorities of Equatorial Guinea arrested Du Toit and 14 others, who were allegedly plotting to overthrow the government in a coup: https://www.dannymorrison.com/wp-conten ... ve/063.htm
(https://archive.is/DDnpK)
After the British intelligence associated Simon Mann had spent 5 1/2 years in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea jails, he was pardoned by President Teodoro Obiang.
When he was back in Britain, he made a stunning u-turn. Suddenly his British and American handlers weren't involved in the coup anymore, but now Mann claimed that both Spain and South Africa had "given the green light" to the coup: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3597450.stm
After Simon Mann was pardoned by Equatorial Guinea's dictator Teodoro Obiang Nguema, he was paid - "had his expenses covered" - to defend Teodoro's son and vice-president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodorin Obiang Nguema, in a court of law in France.
Simon Mann said that the trial of Teodorin was to "destabilise and overthrow" the "recognised and legitimate regime" of Equatorial Guinea.
I don't know why this was relevant at this trial, but he also accused the faithful servant of the Anglo-Dutch royal families, George Soros, of plotting to overthrow Equatorial Guinea's government. Mann also accused exiled opposition leader Severo Moto Nsa and British-Lebanese businessman Ely Khalil of conspiring with black George against the brutal dictator.
Again I don't understand the relevance, but he also accused William Bourdon, lawyer for the anti NGO Transparency International, of being part in the plot.
Needless to say, Simon Mann didn't have a shred of evidence for these allegations: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-40420872
Before his u-turn, Simon Mann included a section in his memoirs about Lady of the Garter Margaret Thatcher knowing about and supporting the coup.
For some reason, this was removed before his memoirs "Cry Havoc" were published in 2011...
In 2004, at Margaret's Belgravia home she said to Mann about the planned coup: "I'm sure it's going to work" (strange typo in the link "giunea"): https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... up-attempt
As if the son of the former PM of Britain, Margaret Thatcher, financing the coup and being friends with the alleged ringleader Simon Mann isn't bad enough...
The son of Simon, Jack Mann, is also good friends with both Princes William and Harry. In 2006, William and Harry skipped Princess Beatrice’s fancy 18th to go to Jack’s 23rd birthday party in Oxfordshire.
Jack Mann was so close to Harry that he was even tipped as his best man.
Jack Mann was (is?) a good polo player.
See Prince Harry (L) and Jack Mann at the Audi Polo Challenge on 30 May 2015, London, England.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/arti ... Queen.html