Ely Calil, 64, could be a leading character in one of his friend Jeffrey Archer’s more extravagant novels. A secretive Nigerian-born magnate, he has developed close relationships with the rich and powerful in Britain, Nigeria and the Middle East.

Given his distaste for the limelight – he has been photographed once in 25 years – he will despise the attempts to name him as the main backer of the coup in Equatorial Guinea.

Born Ely Claude Alan Calil in December 1945, he was privately educated in Europe. At 22 he inherited £20 million on the death of his Lebanese father. Young Ely focused his considerable entrepreneurial skills on the rapidly emerging crude oil industry in Nigeria. He used his contacts to expand his business into manufacturing batteries and building and selling trucks. Reports claim that he developed a close relationship with General Ibrahim Babangida, who snatched power in a 1985 coup.

Mr Calil is said to be worth £100 million. He owns a six-acre home on Billionaires’ Row in Hampstead. He has other properties in Kensington, Switzerland and Lagos. Arrested in 2002 in Paris, accused of taking £40 million in backhanders in the Elf-Aquitaine scandal, he was released without charge.

In March Mr Calil issued a rare statement denying any connection with the plot. “I have a great deal of sympathy with Simon Mann’s predicament. He has made many contradictory statements. The only statement he made freely was an affidavit in Zimbabwe, in which he confirmed [that] his original allegations about me were made under duress. ”

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