-Caveat Lector- London Times FRIDAY OCTOBER 20 2000 CATHY PINNOCK/AP Harry Oppenheimer left £30 million, a fraction of what he is said to have been worth Mining tycoon hides his family fortune FROM MICHAEL DYNES IN JOHANNESBURG HARRY OPPENHEIMER, the South African mining magnate reputed to be one of the ten richest men in the world, went to his grave leaving little trace of his vast personal fortune thought to be more than £3 billion, it was revealed yesterday. The former head of the Anglo American Corporation and De Beers, two of the world's largest mining companies, left a will declaring his personal wealth at a paltry 307 million rand (£30 million), a fraction of his real net worth. Like other billionaires, Mr Oppenheimer, who died in August aged 91 after a brief illness, appears to have deposited the bulk of his vast fortune, accumulated from mining gold, diamonds and other minerals, in a trust to protect his assets for the future benefit of his family. Most of the wealth declared in his will goes to his widow, Bridget, to whom he was married for 57 years, including his extensive art collection, a stud farm in Kimberley, and all his racehorse enterprises, along with properties, stocks and cash. A lifelong collector of art, Mr Oppenheimer is said by friends to have accumulated "the most fabulous collections of art and Africana," including the "most extraordinary collection of Thomas Baines originals." His horse-breeding business at Mauritzfontein, Kimberley, is said to be worth several million dollars. In addition to leaving no clues as to the whereabouts of the missing billions, Mr Oppenheimer's £30 million will, which is only provisional as the value of his estate is still being finalised, also makes no mention of his son, Nicholas, the chairman of De Beers, his daughter, Mary, his five grandchildren, and his two great-grandchildren. All are expected to benefit from the wealth tied up in the Harry Oppenheimer Family Trust. Attempts to minimise death duties through the use of trust funds are legal, but questions are bound to be asked about the ethical implications of South Africa's richest individual protecting his vast personal wealth from taxation in a country where millions of people live in grinding poverty and where the Government does not have the resources to improve their lot. Although Mr Oppenheimer was widely regarded as a great philanthropist, his business interests benefited considerably from the pool of cheap black labour provided under the former apartheid regime. Some critics have insisted that he did not do enough to bring that system down. They are now likely to be outraged that his personal fortune has been placed beyond the reach of the taxman too. Mr Oppenheimer inherited control of the family's already substantial mining empire from his father, Sir Ernest, in 1957, before transforming it into one of the world's greatest mining houses. Harry was born in England in 1908 into a middle-class family that later moved to South Africa. His father was Jewish, but the family converted to Anglicanism. Sir Ernest founded Anglo American - which was valued on the London Stock Exchange last year at £8.4 billion - in 1917 and became chairman of De Beers in 1929. The young Harry was educated at Charterhouse and Christ Church, Oxford, and served a tough apprenticeship in the family business during the Depression, before becoming the driving force behind the expansion of the Oppenheimers' worldwide mining interests, which he ran from a small room on the first floor of Anglo American's Johannesburg offices. He was a quiet, polite, even bookish man, with a passion for the Romantic poets, especially Byron. During the 1980s he was credited with taking the initiative to promote negotiations with the banned African National Congress in an effort to bring an end to white minority rule. An avowed capitalist with a social conscience, Mr Oppenheimer played a leading role in ensuring that Anglo American and De Beers ploughed some of their profits back into the community for large-scale development projects. The family also contributes to charity through the E. Oppenheimer Foundation. Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, his successor as President of South Africa, paid tribute to Mr Oppenheimer after his death "for building the economy and creating employment for hundreds of thousands of South African citizens". Overseeing the multibillion-pound business interests has always rested firmly on the shoulders of the men in the family. Mr Oppenheimer's son took over the chairmanship of De Beers in 1998, becoming the third generation of Oppenheimers to run the company. Rumour has it that Nicholas's son, Jonathan, is being groomed to take over the family business. Surprisingly, not one of the seven Oppenheimer women has ever entered or shown any interest in taking over the reins of the dynasty. Mr Oppenheimer's daughter, Mary, who has been married and divorced three times, has gone out of her way to protect from the media her four daughters, Victoria Jane, an author living in London, Rebecca, an actress in South Africa, Jessica Bridget, a graphic designer in South Africa, and Rachel, who is still at school. Although the family is widely regarded as South Africa's most wealthy dynasty, no one has ever been able to state with any precision how wealthy they are. The family company E Oppenheimer & Son is known to hold a sizeable portfolio of investments in South Africa as well as abroad. One Johannesburg stockbroker has estimated that it has stakes in 70 per cent of the Johannesburg stock exchange's listed companies, the value of which is kept strictly private. The family is estimated to be worth 30 billion rand, "and that's a conservative estimate", one analyst said. Copyright 2000 Times Newspapers Ltd. This service is provided on Times Newspapers' standard terms and conditions. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material from The Times, visit the Syndication website. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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