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of The Hon. Sir Mark Thatcher]] Personal life Mark Thatcher attended Harrow Public School , leaving in 1971 with just three O-level s. He became an articled clerk at Touche Ross, a City of London firm of Chartered Accountant s, but did not succeed in becoming an accountant himself. In 1987, Mark Thatcher married Diane Burgdorf, the conservative Lutheran daughter of a millionaire Texas car dealer. They reportedly met at a party for '' D Magazine '', a Dallas lifestyle publication, while Thatcher was living in Texas as a representative of the luxury automotive company Lotus Cars . They have a son and a daughter, Michael Thatcher and Amanda Margaret Thatcher. The family moved to South Africa possibly to avoid bad publicity because of allegations of racketeering that resulted in a £4 million civil action in 1994. In addition to his prominence as the only son of one of the world's best known politicians, Sir Mark has attracted headlines for his alleged arrogance, youthful playboy scrapes, troubled business associations, and his involvement in an attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea . In 2004, an unnamed South African hostess told '' The Telegraph '' that the baronet, who is reportedly worth in excess of £60,000,000, reminded her of one of the "amiable, entertaining twits" that inhabit the novels of P.G. Wodehouse . He inherited the baronetcy (which carries the title "Sir") after the death of his father in 2003 . On 3 April 2005 , Sir Mark, then living with his widowed mother in London, announced that his family home will be in Europe after he was refused a residence visa to live in the United States, presumably as a result of his guilty plea in South Africa over his alleged unwitting involvement in an attempted coup d'état in Equatorial Guinea . His children, he stated, will be educated in the United States. In September 2005, his divorce was announced. Under the headline "Mark Thatcher — undesirable in Monaco ?" French newspaper '' Le Figaro '' reported on December 20 , 2005 : :"Margaret Thatcher's son, the former British prime minister's nefarious offspring, will not be installing himself in the principality of Monaco as he hoped." A spokesman for Prince Albert told ''Le Figaro'' that Sir Mark's residency card would not be renewed. "He has a temporary residency card valid for one year. It will not be renewed when it expires in the second half of 2006 and he will have to leave." The spokesman, Armand Deus, added: "I cannot say why it will not be renewed. But the Prince made things very clear during his investiture in July when he said that ethics will be at the centre of life in Monaco." Sir Mark Thatcher has a Twin sister, Carol Thatcher , a journalist. Motor rallying career In 1982 , while competing in the Paris-Dakar Rally , Thatcher, his French co-driver, Charlotte Verney, and their mechanic went missing in the Sahara Desert for six days. On January 9 , 1982 , the trio became separated from a convoy of vehicles after they stopped to make repairs to a faulty steering arm. They were declared missing on January 12 ; after a large-scale search, a C-130 Hercules search plane from the Algerian Military spotted the white Peugeot 504 some 50km off course. Thatcher, Verney and the mechanic were all unharmed. He was criticised at the time for not thanking his rescuers. He financed his rallying under a company called "Mark Thatcher Racing", but it was dissolved because of financial problems. The Paris-Dakar incident was one of the few times that the public saw a cracking of Prime Minister Thatcher's "Iron Lady" reputation, as she gave way to moments of obvious despair and worry. Business life Thatcher initially hoped to become an accountant but failed his accountancy exams three times. He was later employed in the jewellery business and was involved in a succession of unsuccessful career attempts in the Far East. It is his business dealings at the time that his mother was Prime Minister, however, that were the subject of much press attention. Thatcher is alleged by a Saudi dissident, Mohammed Khilewi , as well as by former Labour MP Tam Dalyell , and '' The Guardian '' newspaper, to have received a multimillion-pound commission on the £20,000,000,000 Al Yamamah arms contract with Saudi Arabia, which his mother signed in 1985 as Prime Minister. According to ''The Guardian'', "Sir Mark has always denied receiving this payment or exploiting his mother's connections in business dealings." Other widely reported Thatcher embarrassments include allegations of U.S. tax evasion (a criminal case was eventually dropped) and a racketeering case in Texas which was settled out of court. According to "The Telegraph" ( August 26 , 2004 ), "In 1998, he was at the centre of a scandal after he lent huge sums of money at exorbitant interest rates to more than 900 local police officers and civil servants in Cape Town . He admitted lending the cash but insisted that he had done nothing wrong. He is also thought to have profited from contracts to supply aviation fuel in various African countries." Equatorial Guinea affair On August 25 , 2004 , Thatcher was arrested at 10 Dawn Avenue, his thatched-roof mansion in Constantia , a rich suburb outside Cape Town , South Africa . He was charged later that day with contravening two sections of South Africa's "Foreign Military Assistance Act", which bans South Africa n residents from taking part in any foreign Military activity. The charges related to "possible funding and logistical assistance in relation to {Link without Title} attempted Coup in Equatorial Guinea " organised by Simon Mann . He was released on Bail of 2 million Rand and spent a period of time under House Arrest , but was bailed to London to live with his widowed mother while his wife and children moved to the family's home in Highland Park , an up-market section of her hometown, Dallas, Texas . On November 24 , 2004 , the Cape Town High Court upheld a subpoena from the South African Justice Ministry that required him to answer under oath questions from Equatorial Guinea n authorities regarding the alleged coup attempt. He was due to face questioning on November 25 , 2004 , regarding offences under the South African Foreign Military Assistance Act; however, these proceedings were later postponed until April 8 , 2005 . Ultimately, following a process of Plea Bargain ing, Thatcher pleaded guilty to negligence in investing in an aircraft "without taking proper investigations into what it would be used for". He was fined three million Rand (approximately $500,000 USD) and received a four-year Suspended Jail Sentence . Titles The coup scandal outraged was created a Dame , and the wives of both Benjamin Disraeli and Winston Churchill were given peerages in their own right, although the former also excited controversy at the time. Titles from birth
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