Mercenary, Inc.

The corporation was actually called Executive Outcomes and operated from 1994 to 1998, when South Africa illegalized mercenary activity. The proprietor, a high-born Briton named Simon Mann, is part of a small and elite class of professional soldiers who have set themselves up as entrepreneurs in a very limited industry.

Conceived (or at least pitched) as a military corporation for hire by diamond and gold mines, the corporation's activities have been questionable at best. But then, when one specializes in outsourced shock troops, one ought to expect the unexpected. Mann's enterprise came under criticism for being something rather more belligerent than security guards in Sierra Leone, Angola, and Papua New Guinea.

Simon Mann is a gamer. Just because his activities were banned from South Africa didn't make them any less needed, and now there's some question as to whether his most recent activity was a plot to overthrow the government of Equitorial Guinea, or, as he claims, to protect a diamond mine in the D.R. Congo. Quite a few - mostly Englishmen and Americans - have been arrested for involvement in the reported cabal, now including Sir Mark Thatcher, son of former English P.M. Margaret Thatcher, hereditary Baron, and resident of South Africa.

Mann, of course, is just beginning his career. French privateer Bob Denard is well-known for operating in a bevy of nations in Africa and the Middle East, including setting a Guinness World Record for most coups against the same country. Denard has deposed four Comoran rulers to date.