Post by Ed on Jan 2, 2007 3:31:17 GMT 3
Exposed: The mercenary faces behind Spectre International
By JK
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The name Antonio Teixeira may not ring any bells in Kenya. But in international circles, the chairman of Energem Resources, which bought a 55 per cent stake in the Odinga family’s Spectre International –sends several alarms.
His entry into Kenya’s business circles is expected to raise eyebrows because of past business links with "mercenary" companies hired to protect mining companies in some of Africa’s bloodiest war zones, The Sunday Standard can exclusively report.
Four years ago, the South African Portuguese, also known as Tony Teixeira, was accused in the British Parliament of gun-running for Angola’s Unita rebels and for defying United Nations sanctions by supplying oil to the rebel movement.
Now questions are being raised about the controversial man behind a Canadian company that purchased the troubled Kisumu molasses plant from the Oginga Odinga family.
Teixeira has been linked to Branch Energy and Executive Outcomes, two notorious private security-cum-paramilitary companies with a record of involvement in war wealth.
Branch Energy, which had mining concessions in Sierra Leone, is 100 per cent owned by Teixeira’s Energem, is one of the pioneers in the provision of private security in return for mining concessions in war-torn nations. Executive Outcomes, on the other hand, was founded by a former Teixeira ally, Tony Buckingham, who recently sat on the board of Energem Resources.
Buckingham, a former South African soldier, was a member of the dreaded South African apartheid-era assassination squad, the 32nd Battalion, and was also behind the British mercenary company, Sandline, which in 1999 broke a UN arms embargo in Sierra Leone, allegedly with the backing of the British government.
Sandline, however, closed shop in April, this year, citing failure to get British support for its private military activities.
According to an Energem company profile obtained by the Sunday Standard, Teixeira’s newly registered company, Energem Kenya Limited, is licensed to "import refined oil products" and "bitumen for the Ministry of Roads", headed by Raila Odinga. It is the award of an exclusive contract to a company associated with the Odinga family by a ministry headed by a member of the same Odinga family that sparked the row over the acquisition of the Kisumu molasses plant last week.
But Teixeira is not new to controversy.
Last year, another of Teixeira’s companies, Trans Sahara Trading (TST), was stopped from supplying oil to Zambia by President Levy Mwanawasa, who cited "irregularities" in the award of the tender.
And now, Teixeira’s ownership of the Kisumu molasses plant has thrust him to the centre of another dispute only eight months after he announced that his company had acquired a controlling stake in the moribund ethanol plant.
Bondo MP Dr Oburu Odinga, who is also the chairman of East African Spectre, which partly owned Spectre International, says the family has "no interest" in the ethanol maker after pulling out last November.
The current storm was kicked up by newly appointed Urban Development assistant minister Maina Kamanda, who accused the Odinga family of "grabbing" the land occupied by the plant, "failing to pay for it" and later selling it to Canadians.
Official documents now indicate that the land in question was offered to Spectre International by the then Commissioner of Lands, Mr S.K Mwaita, in a letter dated January 11, 2001.
The value of the entire land measuring 112 hectares was put at Sh3,699,750. Twenty-three months later, Teixeira’s DiamondWorks, renamed Energem, acquired a controlling stake in Spectre International and paid $2 million (Sh160 million) for a stake in the Odinga family-owned enterprise.
But the molasses saga deepened further after the Ministry of Lands and Housing issued a brief this week saying there "is no record of official valuation of the property by the chief government valuer".
Although the molasses plant was supposed to have been auctioned, the ministry’s brief raised questions on the transaction: "What appears to have been processed for sale is empty land and there is no record of how the physical infrastructure investment on the stalled project (was) sold and for how much."
"The land deal was a direct allocation to Spectre International and there is no indication of other offers being sourced in the absence of official valuation".
Dr Oburu Odinga who sits on the board of Spectre International with his sister, Ruth, has denied any impropriety on the family’s part.
With the matter now being investigated by a Cabinet committee, Kenyans have not heard the last of the matter.
It seems curious that the offer of the molasses plant land was made to Spectre International some five days after the Raila’s National Development Party (NDP) entered into a partnership with then ruling party, Kanu.
Although Oburu denied that the Odinga family owns the molasses plant, he conceded that two family members sit on the board of Spectre International.
Texeira entered Kenya’s business world through one of his subsidiary companies, Petroplus Africa Limited, which concluded a memorandum of understanding with the National Oil Company of Kenya (NOCK) and a separate "hospitality agreement" with the state corporation, Kenya Petroleum Refining Ltd, Kenya Pipeline Company and NOCK’s Nairobi Terminal.
"These arrangements were entered into for purposes of enabling Petroplus’s entry into the Kenyan market and to facilitate its ability to undertake a review of the mid-stream oil industry in Kenya aimed at its modernisation and development," the company said in a statement in November last year.
Under the auspices of NOCK, Petroplus imported two trial shipments of oil products in April and May and was awarded its own oil importation and trading licence for Kenya in June 2003.
"The test results were positive and supported the decision by DiamondWorks (now Energem Resources) to acquire control through Spectre of the Kisumu ethanol plant," the company said.
That entry, we have established, came after another of Energem’s subsidiaries faced problems in the Zambian market where Teixeira reported "difficult trading conditions" in a statement he issued to shareholders in October last year.
Although Teixeira’s name has not featured in Kenya, the allegations of gun-running made in Britain that his operations in Angola, Sierra Leone and Liberia made a fortune out of blood diamonds is bound raise a lot of heat.
In its company profile, Energem Resources says it is "supplying bitumen and other products to the Roads and Energy ministries", an issue that could generate political heat in Kenya.
Texeira came to the board of DiamondWorks, now known as Energem Resources, in January 2000 when his Isle-of-Man registered company, Lyndhurst Limited, advanced $5 million to the ailing DiamondWorks. The loan was converted into shares.
But the company appears to have run into trouble with Canada’s Ontario Securities Commission, which stopped the board from sitting in April 2002 and accused its members of "failing to file financial statements" and to "disclose" the affairs of DiamondWorks.
The company immediately changed its name to Energem Resources.
www.eastandard.net/archives/august/sun01082004/intelligence/intel31070410.htm
The Men Behind Energem
Tony Buckingham
A former SAS (Special Air Service) officer. He founded of Heritage Oil, DiamondWorks (Energem Resources), Branch energy, Indigo Sky Gems, etc. He is also a partner in mercenary groups like Sandline International, Executive Outcomes. Some companies he has interests in operate as mercenaries and as resource firms. There is no clear line between their military activities and mining activities. These are Branch Energy and Indigo Sky Gems.
At the moment, he is working hard to shed his past mercenary activities –at least in the public domain.
www.energem.com/logistics.html
www.heritageoilcorp.com/management.htm
www.diamondworks.com/
Tony Teixeira
A Portuguese born South African citizen. Currently he is the CEO of Energem Resources. His company Lyndhurst was involved in diamond mining in Angola. He funded the UNITA in exchange for mining rights. He supplied arms and offered logistic support to UNITA in a clear violation of UN arms embargo. He used the services of Victor Bout the international arms dealer.
House of Commons Hansard Debates for 18 Jan 2000
www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199900/cmhansrd/vo000118/debtext/00118-03.htm
Colonel Tim Spicer
A former former SAS and holder of OBE (Order of British Empire) honor. He Sandline International CEO before starting another mercenary group named Crisis and Risk Management Ltd. which became Strategic Counseling International which later became Trident Maritime. Spicer now owns Aegis Defence Services. Aegis Defence Services has a subsidiary named Aegis Risk Management that has offices in Nairobi Kenya. The company is a sanitized form of Sandline International. Aegis was formed to bid for US defense contracts because the mother company (Sandline) had so many human rights violations.
www.aegisworld.com/international_offices.html
Spicer has been involved in many mercenary missions. He was involved in an unsuccessful mission in Papua New Guinea where he tried to take over the Panguna Copper Mine that by force. This led to a revolution. Spicer was arrested by the army and prosecuted. He was later released on the behest of the British government.
Spicer was also involved in the Equatorial Guinea coup attempt. He had teamed up with Mark Thatcher and others in the mission. However the mission was discovered when a plane carrying mercenaries from South Africa was intercepted in Zimbabwe. www.bbc.co.uk/drama/coup/
Simon Mann
A Dog of War that will do anything for money. Mann is ye another former SAS officer who went on to be one of the notorious mercenary leaders. He is a founder member of Sandline. He was involved in the bloody Sierra Leone war.
Mann was arrested in Zimbabwe over the Equatorial Guinea coup attempt. He is serving a 7 year sentence.
www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa&articleid=137037
The East African Clients
Yoweri Museveni
A Ugandan demagogue who believes that nobody else can lead Uganda. He has handed over Uganda’s resources to his foreign masters in the UK. He is involved in the instability in Congo. Museveni is using Ugandan forces as a private army to back his Saracen mercenary company in the plunder of Congo’s minerals. These minerals are smuggled out of Congo through Uganda from where the puppeteers transport them out of the continent.
Gen. Salim Saleh
A former UPDF general. Salim is Museveni’s brother and business associate. He has close ties with Branch Energy and Heritage oil. He owns interests Saracen –a mercenary group formed by Executive Outcomes. Salim and his puppeteer Heckie Horn were investigated by the UN for violating a UN arms embago on Congo. The UN recommended that the duo be banned from traveling and also that their accounts be frozen. daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N03/567/36/IMG/N0356736.pdf?OpenElement
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3030515.stm
Raila Odinga
Our own version of demagogue at his best. He is the Kenyan link to the mercenary groups that have pillaged Africa. He has business deals with Energem Resources and Branch Energy. Energem owns 55% of Spectre International (the company that owns Kisumu Molasses plant). Raila is among the proxies that Energem is using to gain control of the energy sector in Kenya.
Energem started doing business in Kenya when it acquired controlling shares in Spectre EA. When Railla was appointed Minister for Energy, Energem started growing roots in the government. Energem was given contracts to import oil for Kenya. Energem sister companies were also given contracts in the ministry of Roads and Public works.
As a minister for Energy, Raila further pushed his handlers’ agenda. He pushed Kenya into oil deals with Sudan. The beneficiary to this deal was to be Branch Energy (a sister company of Energem). Around that time, Branch Energy was trying to enter the Sudanese pillaging. Raila was used warm Khartoum’s heart by announcing that Kenya was ready to buy oil from Sudan. Raila campaigned hard for the deal giving press conferences and even traveling to Sudan to seal the deal. However when Kenyans turned the heat on him and Moi over the importation of blood oil, Raila was quick to retreat saying that “the government had no plans of importing oil from Sudan.”
www.nationaudio.com/News/EastAfrican/24072001/Regional/Regional12.html
www.nationaudio.com/News/EastAfrican/06052002/Regional/Regional9.html
www.nationaudio.com/News/DailyNation/10102002/News/News67.html
Raila was involved with another shadowy South African company that wanted to own fishing rights on the Kenyan side of L. Victoria. The company was named Redicon Foods. They were using Raila to push for their interests in the country. The plan backfired when there was public outcry about deal. Later backtracked and claimed he had “never heard” of such a plan and that he ha never heard of the company.
www.eastandard.net/archives/cl/hm_news/news.php?articleid=10161&date=8/1/2005
The Mercenary Groups
Executive Outcomes
An apartheid era mercenary group that has had a hand in every single war and coup in Africa.
Sandline
Below is the information on Sandline’s website www.sandline.com/
On 16 April 2004 Sandline International announced the closure of the company's operations. The general lack of governmental support for Private Military Companies willing to help end armed conflicts in places like Africa, in the absence of effective international intervention, is the reason for this decision. Without such support the ability of Sandline to make a positive difference in countries where there is widespread brutality and genocidal behaviour is materially diminished.
As the information above shows, Sandline closed its doors. But that does not mean that Sandline ceased to exist. Sandline simply rejuvenate under a new name just like our politicians form new parties. Sandline faces are in Aegis Defence Services and Aegis Risk Management. They have offices in Kenya.
Additional Links
www.sierra-leone.org/heartmatter.html
www.carleton.ca/cifp/docs/angolariskreport.pdf
www.business-humanrights.org/Categories/Individualcompanies/E/EnergemResources