THE EVIDENCE AGAINST IVAN & THOM CALANDRA #2 (pg 1 of 2)
Hired Mercenaries used to kill locals and rape diamond mines?
abc.net.au
Question:
1. Can you trust IVAN Management?
2. How - (why?) did Thom Calandra miss this while he shameless pumped IVAN - the stock he personally owns?
For me, if the Executive Outcomes mercenaries hadn't landed in Papua New Guinea, I probably wouldn't have paid much attention to Robert Friedland. Get ready then, to follow a bit of a mystery maze, through a tangled and complex web of companies and associations.
Last year I'd presented a story on Executive Outcomes activities in Africa: how they provided security, and much more, on diamond leases in Angola and Sierra Leone. They were contracted by an English company called Branch Energy. They also did work for an Australian-US company called Sierra Rutile. So with the same mercenaries now in Papua New Guinea, in the last few weeks I checked what had happened to Branch Energy since last year. It seems when Branch Energy wanted to raise finance to expand, they headed for Canada, where they made contact with Robert Friedland. And late last year, Diamondworks - a company closely associated with Friedland - bought Branch Energy.
So are there any other Papua New Guinea links, direct or indirect, to Friedland or Diamondworks?
Background Briefing checked records listed at the Vancouver Stock Exchange, where Diamondworks is listed as a company. One name stood out: Colonel Tim Spicer, Head of Sandline International, currently residing at the British High Commission in Port Moresby.
Last October, Tim Spicer, of 535 King's Road, London, the address of Sandline International and Branch Energy, was granted 10,000 options to buy shares in Diamondworks.
Other people from the same address were also granted options. One of them was Tony Buckingham, now known to have been at the Cairns meeting last April with Tim Spicer and Papua New Guinea officials.
Tony Buckingham, the Head of Branch Energy, was granted 125,000 options. He's also a Director and principal shareholder of the Friedland associated company, Diamondworks. The granting of Diamondworks stock options to Tim Spicer and other mining and mercenary company employees, illustrates more than corporate generosity.
The options were granted under a section of the Securities Act of British Columbia, in Canada, which states that such options are granted to Directors and employees. And that includes - and this is a quote - "certain persons who although in form are independent contractors, in substance are employees."
And in February this year, Eben Barlow, the Head of Executive Outcomes in South Africa, became a shareholder in Diamondworks.
At the same time as Spicer and Buckingham were discussing a contract with the Papua New Guinea Government, Buckingham was well into discussions with Robert Friedland and his brother Eric, about arranging for Diamondworks to take over Branch Energy and its lucrative diamond leases in Africa.
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