2004 Equatorial Guinea coup d'état attempt five calls to Sir Mark Thatcher in the days after the failed coup. On 13 January 2005, Mark Thatcher, in a South African court, pleaded guilty to helping finance a coup plot in Equatorial Guinea. South African police were able to prove that Mr Thatcher had transferred about US$285,000 to the mercenaries that were to execute the operation and had met and talked frequently to them prior to the coup attempt. After pleading guilty, he was given a four-year suspended sentence and a fine of about US$560,000. Simon Mann paid $500,000 (£281,000) towards the plot, according to a list of
Supreme Military Council (Equatorial Guinea) Supreme Military Council (Equatorial Guinea) The Supreme Military Council (, CMS) — initially called the Military Revolutionary Council (, CMR) — was the ruling military junta and the "de facto" government of Equatorial Guinea between the 1979 coup d'état and the 1982 constitutional referendum. On 3 August 1979, President Francisco Macías Nguema was overthrown in a military coup d'état led by a group of officers who attended the General Military Academy in Zaragoza, among them Eulogio Oyó Riqueza, Vice President Bonifacio Nguema Esono Nchama, fallen from grace and the main responsible for the establishment of Cuban influence in Equatorial Guinea,