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John Risley’s South African adventure

How did a Nova Scotia billionaire end up as the cash and clout behind an international court battle claiming a South African government-owned arms company owes hundreds of millions of dollars to an international arms dealer who claims he lost money after Nelson Mandela’s new democratically elected government refused to honour the arms dealer’s deal with the apartheid regime? How indeed?

February 20, 2019 By Tim Bousquet 22 Comments

On December 26, Boxing Day, I received an email with the subject line “JOHN CARTER RISLEY given his outrageous behaviour and bringing others to book in a huge scandal.” I quickly scanned the text of the email, and saw that, like the subject line, it contained lots of all caps, run-on sentences, and nonlinear thoughts. […]

Filed Under: Featured, Investigation Tagged With: Aérospatiale, Andrew Feinstein, arms deal, Armscor, Av Andrade, Beverly Securities Inc, Beverly Securities Ltd, Billy Masetlha, CIEX, Corruption Watch UK, Daniel Loubser, David Lawson, District Judge Katherine Forrest, Establissement Europeen de Financement, Eurocopter S.A., F.W. de Klerk, Gen. Brochado Miranda, Gen. Casimiro Proenca, Gen. Rui Espadinha, Gen. Shares Carneiro, Gilbert Samberg, Hennie van Vuuren, John Risley, Jorge Pinhol, Jose Vegar, Kredietbank (KBC), Kredietbank Luxembourg (KBL), Liesl Göttert, Mandela government, Mark Pieth, Martin Steynberg, Michael Marchant, Michael Oatley, Mintz Levin, money laundering, Open Secrets, Open Society Foundation for South Africa, Oryx, Paul Holder, President Jacob Zuma, Project Adenia, Puma helicopters, South Africa, SuperPuma helicopters, William Humphreys, Working Group

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Brian Borcherdt. Photo: Anna Edwards-Borcherdt

Brian Borcherdt came of age in Yarmouth in the 1990s. When he arrived in Halifax, the city’s famous music scene was already waning, and worse, the music he made was rejected by the cool kids anyway. After decades away from Nova Scotia, he and his young family have settled in the Annapolis Valley, where he’ll zoom in to chat with Tara about his band Holy Fuck’s endlessly delayed tour, creating the Dependent Music collective, and the freedom and excitement of the improvised music he’s making now. Plus: Bringing events back in 2021.

The Tideline is advertising-free and subscriber-supported. It’s also a very good deal at just $5 a month. Click here to support The Tideline.

Uncover: Dead Wrong

In 1995, Brenda Way was brutally murdered behind a Dartmouth apartment building. In 1999, Glen Assoun was found guilty of the murder. He served 17 years in prison, but steadfastly maintained his innocence. In 2019, Glen Assoun was fully exonerated.

Halifax Examiner founder and investigative journalist Tim Bousquet has followed the story of Glen Assoun's wrongful conviction for over five years. Now, Bousquet tells that story as host of Season 7 of the CBC podcast series Uncover: Dead Wrong.

Click here to go to listen to the podcast, or search for CBC Uncover on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast aggregator.

About the Halifax Examiner

Examiner folk The Halifax Examiner was founded by investigative reporter Tim Bousquet, and now includes a growing collection of writers, contributors, and staff. Left to right: Joan Baxter, Stephen Kimber, Linda Pannozzo, Erica Butler, Jennifer Henderson, Iris the Amazing, Tim Bousquet, Evelyn C. White, El Jones, Philip Moscovitch More about the Examiner.

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Recent posts

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