Oil tycoon and '$750,000 for coup plot'

A London millionaire contributed $750,000 to the failed coup in Equatorial Guinea, according to documents in the hands of South African police.

Calil is named with a variety of other businessmen in the socalled "Wonga list" which claims to name the aborted coup's millionaire backers.

It was handed over by two of plot leader Simon Mann's former colleagues, who have turned state evidence.

Calil's solicitor said he did not wish to respond to the claim that he had raised money for the plotters, but he denied any knowledge of the plot.

Also on the list, which has been seen by the Guardian, are businessman Greg Wales and property dealer Gary Hershman. They are alleged to have raised half a million dollars each towards the cost of staging the ill-fated coup, it was reported today.

British mercenary Mann also contributed $500,000 to the plot to overthrow the president of Equatorial Guinea for which he now faces 10 years behind bars, according to the list. The 51-year-old former Etonian will be sentenced by a Zimbabwean court today.

Other alleged financiers on the list include South African-based British businessman David Tremain, who is also alleged to have raised $500,000 for the plot. He is alleged to have worked on behalf of a syndicate of South African and other investors. Tremain and Wales deny any involvement in the coup bid. Mr Hersham, who runs prominent Mayfair estate agency Beauchamps, denies investing any money or knowing of the coup attempt.

He says he helped Mann try to raise cash by introducing him to a banker in order to mortgage his ?800,000 home in Notting Hill. Mann, who failed in his bid to mortgage his home, is then believed to have raised the money against shares he owned in diamond concessions.

Calil's Lebanese associate, Karim Falaha, a director of Asian Trading and Investment in Beirut, whose name is also on the list, signed a contract with Mann to invest $5 million in West African projects.

Mann, a former SAS officer, was held at Harare airport in March along with 67 mercenaries and three air crew accused of trying to buy arms for the coup plot.

He later admitted trying to order assault rifles, grenades, anti-tank rocket launchers and other weapons from Zimbabwe

Defence Industries.

Mann claimed the weapons were to protect a mining operation in war-torn eastern Congo. Legal documents presented by prosecutors include Mann's ?45,000 "shopping list" of weapons to be bought in Zimbabwe. It featured 61 Kalashnikov rif les and 150 hand grenades.

As well as a ?10 million lump sum, Mann demanded control of a 100-strong Guard to the Head of State, complete with a lucrative contract calculated on the basis of ?3,500 per man per month.

Planning of the coup began in October last year. The plan was for Mann and his mercenaries to fly into the capital, Malabo, in an ageing Boeing 727 at 2.30am on 8 March. Despite their small numbers, they aimed to seize the airport, three military bases, the police station and the palace of President Teodoro Obiang.

Equatorial Guinea is now seeking international arrest warrants for Mann, Thatcher and other businessmen accused of financing the coup. Thatcher, who has been charged in South Africa with helping to fund the plot via a payment to a third party, has been subpoenaed to appear before a magistrate on 22 September to answer questions relating to the coup plot.