Sir Mark Thatcher has accumulated a £60-million (about R720-million) fortune through his ”business” activities — but Britain’s most tenacious journalists have failed to uncover precisely what these activities entail.
On one aspect, however, they agree: Thatcher’s financial career took off after his mother, Margaret Thatcher, became Britain’s prime minister in 1979 and he traded on her position to clinch various deals, mostly in the arms trade. His fortune is said to be ”salted away in a labyrinth of offshore bank accounts”.
Mark Thatcher’s main known activities are:
In 1984 he moved to the United States, where he worked for R545 000 a year as the representative of British car-maker Lotus. Three years later he consolidated his vehicle interests by marrying Diane Burgdorf, daughter of a millionaire who sold used cars.
Also in 1984, Thatcher was sued by Houston aircraft refuelling company Ameristar, which claimed he had used illegal means to take control. The case brought the controversial Briton to the attention of the US’s formidable Inland Revenue, and after an out-of-court settlement of about £2-million, he moved on to Cape Town in 1996.
In his travels as an (alleged) wildlife photographer, Thatcher used a bullet-proof custom-built Land Rover, had a bodyguard and carried ”wads of foreign currency”. He held clandestine meetings with influential officials and used both a British and a South African passport.
At school Thatcher was known as ”Thickie Mark”. He passed three O levels, did not attend university and failed accountancy exams three times.
The British press indicated on Thursday that he could expect little sympathy for his plight. One headline read ”Spoilt dimwit with mystery fortune”, and another: ”It is hard to feel sorry for Mark Thatcher”.
But the conservative Daily Mail commented: ”Mark Thatcher may have many shortcomings … But to amass a reputed £60-million fortune without breaking sweat, much less running any identifiable corporate enterprise, requires a sharpness and cunning for which his detractors rarely give him credit.”
