FEW chief executives can claim so colourful a background. Was he an accountant
who diligently plugged away at the numbers before slipping gracefully into
the top job? Certainly not. Someone who quietly climbed the corporate greasy
pole to become the main man at his lifetime employer? Not a bit of it.
Tony Buckingham is a man whose unusual career put him at the epicentre of the
trade in arms and soldiers that were shipped into war-torn African states
during the 1990s. He was a partner in controversial South African-based
mercenary provider Executive Outcomes. And with Colonel Tim Spicer, he was
one of the leading figures in Sandline International, which provided
mercenaries, training and arms that were employed by the government of Papua
New Guinea to quell an uprising. In other words, Buckingham was involved
with the most prominent names in the 1990s world of mercenary soldiers. Now
Buckingham, 56, has quietly secured a London listing for a £750m company,
Heritage Oil, which he founded.
He is chief executive and controls almost a third of the equity. Heritage has
assets in Russia, Oman, Kurdistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali,
Malta and Pakistan. Until now, it has been listed in Canada.
Needless to say, Heritage’s 300-page prospectus is careful to emphasise that
Buckingham has long since severed his connection with any mercenary
business. It says: “Mr Buckingham . . . has had no involvement with any
military or security operations since the spring of 1998.”
And it explicitly distances Buckingham from Simon Mann, one of his former
partners at Executive Outcomes.
Mann is now incarcerated in Equatorial Guinea, having been arrested in
Zimbabwe in 2004. He faces trial for being involved in a plot to try to oust
Equatorial Guinea’s president Teodoro Obiang Nguema that same year.
The Heritage prospectus says: “Mr Buckingham has had no substantive business
contact with Simon Mann since 1998 and no contact of any nature with him
since 2000. He had no knowledge of Mr Mann’s activity in Equatorial Guinea.”
But even Heritage admits investors need to be mindful of Buckingham’s
extraordinary past when considering whether to put their money into the
company.
In the pompous prose so beloved of City practitioners, the company’s
prospectus lists Buckingham’s history as one of the risks to be assessed.
It says: “Adverse media or other public speculation about the chief executive
officer’s past associations could materially adversely affect the group’s
reputation and the market price of the ordinary shares.” But, it insists,
Heritage “has no assets or current intentions to operate in the countries in
which Executive Outcomes or Sandline International operated”.
So that’s settled: Buckingham has cut all ties with the mercenary game. And he
had absolutely nothing to do with the coup plot in Equatorial Guinea.
Buckingham can concentrate whole-heartedly on building up Heritage - and
indulging his favourite pastime of sailing. He is a keen yachtsman, has
represented Great Britain, won the Commodores’ Cup at Cowes in 2000 and is
said to harbour an ambition to build a boat to compete in the America’s Cup.
Already the bungled coup plot has cost some people dear. Mann, Buckingham’s
former pal and colleague, is in Black Beach prison in Equatorial Guinea. And
Sir Mark Thatcher, son of former prime minister Baroness Thatcher, has
received a four-year suspended prison sentence from a South African court
and a fine of 3m rand (£192,000) after pleading guilty to charges in
connection with the plot.
But legal action by the government of Equatorial Guinea has thrown up
intriguing connections between one of the key enterprises involved in the
coup plot and two offshore entities that have played a pivotal role in
Buckingham’s business life.
Mann’s buccaneering career came to an ignominious halt in March 2004. He and
some 60 others were arrested in the Zim-babwean capital Harare.
A plane-load of mercenaries and arms was intercepted; Mann, with others, was
accused of trying to get them to Equatorial Guinea where, it was alleged,
they would have helped oust Obiang, replacing him with Severo Moto.
Mann initially denied any involvement in the coup attempt, but three weeks
ago, he was interviewed - manacled hand and foot and with his straggly beard
shot through with grey - and admitted: “I was involved. And I was, if you
like, the manager.”
Not surprisingly, the Equatorial Guinea government, renowned as one of the
most brutal dictatorships in Africa, was unamused to learn that someone had
been trying to overthrow it. The West African state launched legal
proceedings in Guernsey to try to uncover paperwork to show who was really
involved in financing the coup attempt.
One of the companies in that legal wrangle was, as the judge in the case put
it: “Logo Limited or Logo Logistics Limited (‘Logo’ -
variously described as being registered in Cyprus or the Caribbean)”. Mann
was a director.
In the court case, copies of contracts were produced; they showed that Mann
had signed for Logo and that the deals involved the recruitment of
mercenaries and supply of military equipment and ammunition.
Logo, the judge said, had “the same business address in St Peter Port, from
which Hansard Trust Company Limited and Hansard Management Services Limited
. . . operate.”
There is no evidence linking Buckingham directly to Logo - and he has publicly
declared that by 2004, he had no contact with Mann and no involvement in the
Equatorial Guinea affair. His supporters say that security services cleared
him of any involvement in the coup that never was.
But the mention of Logo alongside the Hansard companies is, for Buckingham,
unfortunate.
Buckingham certainly has had links with Hansard - as does the newly-listed
Heritage Oil.
Back in 1996, DiamondWorks was born: it was the new name for Canada-based
Carson Gold.
The company merged with a Buckingham business, Branch Energy, which had
operations in Angola and Sierra Leone.
An announcement in Vancouver said: “The principal shareholders of Carson will
be the current controlling shareholders of Branch, being Hansard Management
Services (21.2%) and Hansard Trust Company (20.5%), both controlled by
Anthony LR Buckingham.”
The wording suggested that the Hansard companies were both controlled by
Buckingham. But this was later denied.
After a Sunday Times investigation into Sandline published in 2000, the
mercenary company issued a long statement.
The newspaper had described Hansard Management as “another Buckingham company”.
Not so, said Sandline. The company retorted: “Hansard Management is a trust
company owned and run independently. Tony Buckingham does not and never has
had any equity, other financial interest or management interest in it.”
The matter might have rested there. But then the Equatorial Guinea legal
action in Guernsey threw up the Hansard name and connected it to Mann’s Logo.
Hansard again makes an appearance in the new Heritage prospectus. The document
names it as holding one share in each of four companies within Heritage’s
corporate structure. The shares are held “with a declaration of trust in
favour of” four other Heritage companies.
Hansard formed the company through which Buckingham now holds his stake in
Heritage.
Furthermore, 2006 accounts for Heritage Oil Corporation, a Canadian company in
the corporate chain of ownership, give a Guernsey address for Heritage Oil &
Gas Holdings: it is identical to that of Hansard.
Buckingham declined to speak directly to The Sunday Times this weekend. But in
a statement, Heritage said: “Hansard Management Services and Hansard Trust
Company are fiduciary companies regulated in Guernsey. They provide
corporate secretarial services to certain of Heritage’s subsidiaries. We
understand that they have hundreds of clients of which Heritage is one. Mr
Buckingham has not and never had any direct or indirect shareholding in
either company, been a director of either, or had any involvement in their
management.”
The company went on to say that “JP Morgan Cazenove and the UK Listing
Authority have undertaken full and complete due diligence on Mr Buckingham
and Heritage”.
Certainly, the Heritage prospectus discloses much about Buckingham’s past. No
secret is made of his old links with mercenaries. The company will not
confirm or deny the often-repeated claim that Buckingham was once a member
of the special forces - either the Special Air Service or Special Boat
Service.
Now, Heritage is making every effort to draw a line under its chief
executive’s past and move on; after all, there is oil to be found and
produced - in some of the most challenging territories in the world.
But even JP Morgan Cazenove, which sponsored last week’s London listing of
Heritage, has admitted that investors looking for a safe bet should give
this one a wide berth.
A research note by Cazenove analyst Jessica Saadat said that Heritage offered
“very exciting potential”. But, crucially, “Heritage ought to be seen as a
high-risk, high-impact play for institutional investors with a tolerance for
share-price volatility”.
High risk, high impact - the perfect way to describe the life of Heritage’s
chief executive.
Thanks for doing your bit to expose these dangerous creeps.
Kevin, Croydon, UK