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 of Spain filed a criminal complaint in that country against the government of Equatorial Guinea for money laundering, citing over $26 million in transfers of funds from Riggs Bank to Banco Santander in Madrid between 2000 and 2003. The complaint listed eleven people, including Obiang, his son Gabriel Nguema Lima, his daughter-in-law Virginia Esther Maye, his brother-in-law Teodoro Biyogo, Elena Mensa, Minister of Foreign Affairs Pastor Mincha, Mincha's wife, Magdalena Ayang, and former Minister of Mines Anastasio Ela. As of 2011, a Spanish court was investigating these charges of money laundering as well as the charge that the money had