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Problems With Safaris In Burkina Faso
Published: June - 1999
There is some troubling information coming out about safaris to Burkina Faso, booked earlier this year by Tom Banks of West African Safaris. Yes, this is the same Tom Banks who has booked upwards of 40 safaris to Liberia next year. Suffice it to say the Burkina Faso feedback is terrible. All indications are that seven safaris have gone off the rails leaving tens of thousands of dollars in claims (Banks says the total is roughly $30,000; the clients say more). The matter has blown up into a Safari Club International Ethics Investigation. Huge dossiers of information are being shipped around. There are rumbles of legal action in the distance. We will keep you posted on how this conflict gets settled. In the meantime, where does this leave clients booked into Liberia next year? And, while we are asking questions, just who is Tom Banks, and how did he come to offer hunting safaris in West Africa anyway?
One troubling document that crossed our desk indicates that another company Banks owned recently has had major judgments against it, totaling more than $100,000. Asked by phone at press time to explain just who he is and what he is up to in West Africa, Banks said most of his work in this part of the world, up until recently, has been with national parks people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast. Most of the funds for this work came from donor organizations, he says. Then, several years ago, he became involved in a rice exporting business in Sierra Leone. That business failed with the outbreak of war. Seems the guerrillas took over the capital, opened the prisons and stormed the port. They stole whole shipping containers of rice that were sitting at the dock, Banks says, effectively bankrupting his company. Th........(continued)
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