Finance time

MARION, ILL. — Until recently, people here had little reason to know the name John A. Bredenkamp or anything about his past, a tale worthy of a James Bond villain, filled with allegations of international arms deals, blood diamond trades and ties to despotic regimes in his native Africa.

Bredenkamp had visited Marion just once, nine years ago, to look over the Bermuda grass fairways and 96 sand bunkers at the Kokopelli Golf Club he was about to buy. He flew out the same day. A low-profile owner, he sold the course to a Florida group in 2006. He kept only a right to split future profits if the course sold again, his one tenuous tie to this Southern Illinois city.

His name might have been forgotten, except for what took place two years later.

"It’s just so absurd," said Fritz Archerd of Gainesville, Fla., head of the group that bought the course from Bredenkamp. "And it’s all because of him."

Just as the golf course was to change hands, the U.S. Department of Treasury blocked the sale — indefinitely. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control had named Bredenkamp to its roster of terrorists and others deemed so undesirable they are targets of economic sanctions. They are called Specially Designated Nationals. Most of al-Qaida is on there. So are Colombian drug kingpins. Their U.S. assets are frozen. U.S. citizens are forbidden from conducting business with them.

Now Marion’s only golf course has been frozen, too, stuck in a perplexing legal limbo for the last 15 months. The current owners are desperate to unload the club, but can’t. Last week, it effectively closed its doors. Seventy-five workers were let go. Just the golf pro remains, left to keep an eye on golf shirts and hats marked down 70 percent.

Meanwhile, the owners and politicians are rushing to hash out a deal with Treasury before the fairways turn, in the horrified words of the local chamber of commerce, to wheat fields.

"Hard to believe that what he did has reached all the way to Southern Illinois," said David Hays, a local restaurant owner who leads a group of investors still hoping to buy the golf course. Hays added he had done some research on Bredenkamp since this all happened.

"He’s a bad dude."

A MAN OF MYSTERY

Bredenkamp, 69, is still barely known in the United States.

He was born and reared in Africa. He was captain of the Rhodesian national rugby team in his younger days. He built a tobacco leaf company from scratch into one of the world’s largest. He made the 1996 list of Great Britain’s richest people (No. 76). His fortune was pegged at several hundred million.

About that time, he made a heavy foray into sports, at one point managing the careers of star golfers Ernie Els and Nick Price. Rumors of misdeeds swirled around Bredenkamp even then. But little was known for sure. Sports Illustrated called him "the most mysterious man in golf."

"He’s a charmer," said Steve Smyers, a noted golf course architect from Florida who designed Kokopelli and knew Bredenkamp.

Smyers got Bredenkamp interested in buying the course in 2001. But Bredenkamp was not a golfer. After several years, the pair decided to sell the struggling Kokopelli.

Archerd’s investment group saw an opportunity. They structured a deal to buy out Bredenkamp and Smyers while giving them the right to share profits if Archerd’s group made a killing. But Archerd said his group has taken a hit on Kokopelli. With the economy tanking, it was not a good time to invest in a golf course. So in late 2008, they were close to selling it to Marion-area investors.

The exact terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but both sides said it would have been a wash. The Marion group would pay off about $330,000 debt and tax liens, plus other expenses of Archerd’s group. No profit remained. Archerd said he expects his investors will lose about $750,000 on the deal.

"We are getting nothing out of this. Bredenkamp would get absolutely nothing out of this," Archerd said. "They’re blocking a guy’s interest that is worth zero."

But they didn’t get the deal done before Treasury’s letter arrived in November 2008.

The Treasury called Bredenkamp a crony of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, a pariah leader whose government in the war-torn nation has been criticized for land seizures and corruption. "Bredenkamp has financially propped up the regime and provided other support to a number of its high-ranking officials," Treasury said in its letter. Treasury described Bredenkamp as a businessman with dealings in "tobacco trading, gray-market arms trading and trafficking … and diamond extraction."

Treasury officials declined to talk about Bredenkamp or the golf course sale for this article.

But news reports and investigations over the years paint a colorful picture.

Bredenkamp has admitted that he evaded United Nations economic sanctions in the early 1970s when he bought aircraft for the Ian Smith-led white Rhodesian government during a civil war with black citizens. (Rhodesia would later become Zimbabwe.) A British TV documentary in 1994 claimed Bredenkamp was deep in the illegal arms trade, his companies selling land mines to Iraq and anti-aircraft guns to Iran. A 2002 U.N. National Security Council interim report looking into the diamond trade in the Democratic Republic of Congo accused a Bredenkamp company of supplying parts for Zimbabwean troops and war planes for missions in the Congo. He also was linked to questionable deals for rights to Congo diamond mines, home to so-called conflict or blood diamonds.

Last year, the European Union joined the United States in blacklisting Bredenkamp.

Bredenkamp has not taken the criticism lightly. He frequently writes letters to British and African publications to complain about the stories detailing his alleged exploits. He also maintains JohnBredenkamp.com, which is aimed squarely at refuting the official record. He did not respond to an e-mail request for comment.

On his site, Bredenkamp complains that he has never been given the chance to defend himself against the actions by U.S. and EU governments.

MARION ENLISTS AID

How someone gets on the list is difficult to discern, according to attorneys familiar with Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control. But once you get on the list, it is almost impossible to get off. And the evidence can be a national security secret.

"They make it a complicated process," said Clif Burns, an economic sanctions attorney with Bryan Cave in Washington.

Burns, who is not involved in the Bredenkamp case, said the sanctions list serves a worthy purpose, but can overreach. That appears to be the case with Kokopelli, Burns said, because it seems certain Bredenkamp would not benefit from the golf course’s sale.

"There is no reason on Earth why the people in this town should be caught up in this," Burns said.

Archerd said he has struggled to get Treasury officials on the phone. He and others recently enlisted the help of U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello and Sen. Dick Durbin.

Thanks to their help, Archerd is flying to Washington this week to talk with Treasury officials. He sounded hopeful.

Hays, the restaurant owner, said he still wants to buy the golf course. He would run the restaurant. Another investor plans to build 90 homes on some unused acres. They want to retain the club’s 200 dues-paying members. And there are some big tournaments coming up: a state open qualifier in June and PGA sectional in September.

But they need to move quickly, Hays said.

"Otherwise," he said, "the golf course is going to be in a true ‘Twilight Zone.’"

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