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
Corruption in Equatorial Guinea it from Rio to Los Angeles to fetch his barber. "In one six-week period in 2006," reported the "New York Times" in 2009, Teodorin had "transferred $33,799,799.99 to the United States...which was used to buy" the jet. As of October 2012 his private jet was "believed to be in Equatorial Guinea but US officials said they would try to seize it if it ever lands in another country." In a single month he spent "$80,000 at Gucci and $50,000 at Dolce & Gabbana" for designer clothing. Dolce & Gabbana would periodically send a sales associate and tailor to his estate