Tony Buckingham

Anthony Leslie Rowland "Tony" Buckingham (born 28 November 1951) is a British businessman of the hard school, equally adept at running mercenary operations against insurgents as prising oil and gems out of the ground in the most inhospitable climates.

Tony Buckingham was described as the "obvious heir apparent" to the great business buccaneer Tiny Rowland, who died in July 1998. Like Tiny Rowland two decades before, Tony Buckingham has made a killing by befriending and helping to power emergent Third World leaders. He even has "Rowland" as a middle name.

As with Tiny Rowland, Buckingham's rise to riches has not been without controversy. There was the Sandline arms shipments to Sierra Leone affair, which embarrassed the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook in 1998. Then there were Sandline's abortive mercenary operations in Papua New Guinea in 1997 and the small mercenary army he organised in Angola in the mid-1990s.

Background

With a large house in Guernsey, which he shares with his wife, Bev, Tony Buckingham is a very wealthy man. He looks the part of the tough oilman, stockily built and with a pugilistic demeanour. Socially he has a reputation as a bon viveur:

"You could not get a more engaging lunch companion," said one acquaintance.

And like Tiny Rowland, Buckingham likes relaxing on his yacht. At weekends he can be seen sipping rum and coke on his boat, "Easy Oars", on the Solent.

Michael Grunberg, a former partner in the accountants Stoy Hayward, who helps Buckingham run his companies from their office in the King's Road, west London, said:

"I have worked with him for five years and he has been a loyal friend. He is a tough businessmen, but he is one of the most amenable people I have ever met."

Charles Jamieson, chief executive of Premier Oil, a major British oil company, who worked with Buckingham in the early 1990s, said:

"The trouble with Tony is he is a likeable rogue."

Tony Buckingham's roots are somewhat mysterious. Even business partners know little of his past. In company records he gives his nationality as British and date of birth as 28 November 1951. But there is no birth certificate for him in the public records on that date. He has not denied a special forces background, believed to be in 22 SAS - the territorial regiment. His business partner, Simon Mann, is also a former SAS officer.

Oil industry

As the archetypal frontiersman, Tony Buckingham got his first break in the great business frontier of the 1970s - the North Sea - as a diver. The small band of professional divers working on the offshore platforms could make good money. "It was here that he got his great love of the oil business," said a colleague.

In the 1980s, Buckingham moved into the business side of oil and spent much of his time abroad doing deals. Premier's Charles Jamieson said: "At one stage he worked with Bunker Hunt Oil in Pakistan and the Canadian Nova Corp in Africa."

In 1987, Tony Buckingham appears as a director of a company called Sabre Petroleum Ltd. On the board were the wealthy Jivraj brothers, who listed UAE Investment Ltd among their directorships at the time. His big business breakthrough seems to have come with his close friendship with Jack Pierce, the head of Ranger Oil, a well-known Canadian company in the North Sea business. In 1990, Tony Buckingham suggested that Ranger take a slice of the Angola offshore oil field and made the introduction to the Angolan government.

Ranger's executive, John Faulds (Mr Pierce died in 1992) said: "Tony was one of [the] business associates and this was Tony's original concept. Ranger wanted to diversify and this was the ideal project." The company got the concession in 1991 and it has produced a steady flow of oil since. Mr Buckingham's Bahamas-registered company Heritage Oil and Gas took a share in the profits.

When the rebel forces of UNITA captured the vital oil town of Soya in 1993, Tony Buckingham suggested to the Angolan government that it should hire mercenaries. He introduced officials to his friend Eeben Barlow, a former South African special forces officer and head of Executive Outcomes, whose hired hands recaptured the town. Although Buckingham remains a director of Ranger (West Africa) Ltd, according to Mr Faulds "He is no longer a working partner - he sold out."

By the early 1990s Buckingham was moving in influential circles. He became a close friend of Andrew Gifford, a founder of the lobby firm GJW Government Relations, that was at the centre of the Labour Party lobbyist controversy. Buckingham describes him as "a close friend who I have been shooting with." Mr Gifford was Lord (David) Steel's former adviser and at his behest, Lord Steel joined the board of Heritage Oil and Gas. He resigned just before the Papua New Guinea scandal broke. Heritage Oil Corporation has been listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange since 1999.

Tony Buckingham is the current CEO and major shareholder of Heritage, which was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2008. Buckingham has led the company through major exploration finds, including the hydrocarbon system in Lake Albert, Uganda and the M’Boundi oilfield in the Republic of Congo. This positive track record is expected to continue as a result of the recently awarded licences in Iraqi Kurdistan and Mali. In July 2013, Tony Buckingham told a London tribunal that he would not bend his evidence to protect his "great mate" Ian Hannam, the City of London dealmaker who was fighting a £450,000 market abuse fine in a case brought by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Minerals

It is the mineral business that has been most lucrative for Tony Buckingham. He is a director of a publicly quoted Canadian mining company, DiamondWorks, which has projects in Africa and elsewhere. Buckingham runs Branch Energy Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary, which holds diamond concessions in Angola and Sierra Leone.

Angola and Sierra Leone

Tony Buckingham, became the controlling shareholder and director of DiamondWorks when the company acquired a private company, Branch Energy Ltd, based on the Isle of Man for US$24.4-million in 1995-6. Branch Energy Ltd had a mining lease on the diamond bearing Koidu property in Sierra Leone. In the early 1990s, Buckingham's military consultancy was retained by Sierra Leone and Angola to provide mercenaries to improve security conditions for foreign mining companies which included his Executive Outcomes (EO), who provided protection to DiamondWorks and shared offices in London with Sandline International, another military consultancy. London-headquartered, Johannesburg-based diamond exploration company DiamondWorks Ltd (TSX: DMW) was one of three junior mining firms that traded on the Canadian stock exchange, (along with Toronto-based AmCan Minerals and Rex Diamond) that contacted Sierra Leone's President Momoh in the early 1990s when the president was seeking new investors. DiamondWorks was "an outgrowth of Carson Gold and Vengold, companies promoted by Robert and Eric Friedland. DiamondWorks and Branch Energy became "the subject of widespread interest because of their apparent but much-denied connections with two major international security firms, Executive Outcomes and Sandline International." It has been argued that "regardless of Executive Outcome’s own purpose, its involvement in Sierra Leone was in a good cause. EO successfully protected a democratically elected government against a brutal and illegitimate rebel force." Buckingham resigned from DiamondWorks in 1998 retaining a 25 percent share.

Namibia

Branch Energy owns a number of companies, including Indigo Sky Gems, in Namibia. This company and its subsidiary, Camelthorne Mining Ltd, have the concession to prospect for tourmaline at the Neu Schwaben mine in Namibia.

Sailing

Tony Buckingham is an avid and accomplished sailor, competing on behalf of Great Britain on many occasions. He has won trophies at various regattas including Cowes Week and won the Commodore's Cup in 2000.

External links

• Licensed to Kill, Hired Guns in the War on Terror, by Robert Young Pelton (ISBN 1-4000-9781-9)
• Hunter Hammer and Heaven, Journeys to Three World's Gone Mad, by Robert Young Pelton (ISBN 1-58574-416-6)
• Michael Bilton "The Private War of Tumbledown Tim", London Sunday Times Magazine special investgiation and cover story, 2 July 2000.
• Mercenary boss evicts gem miners in Namibia
• Heritage Oil Corporation
• Tullow Oil
• The Wonga Coup from an African Perspective

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