Several large-scale land grabbers from the late 2000s have since disappeared or had their projects halted: Philippe Heilberg's 400,000 hectare Sudan land deal from 2009 is now considered invalid by South Sudan. Muammar Gaddafi's 2008 agreement giving his company a 50-year lease to 100,000 hectares in Mali halted in 2011 when he was killed during the Libyan civil war. Miguel Maria de Sá Pais do Amaral's concessions of nearly 170,000 hectares in Africa have been sold off or vanished as his companies disappeared without a trace in Angola and Sierra Leone. C. Sivasankaran's offshore subsidiaries controlling

1. Land grabbers: where are they now?
A look at a few of the biggest land grabbers who have disappeared from the scene
Photo: Rainforest Action Network

2. Philippe Heilberg
Philippe Heilberg gained notoriety for a controversial deal he signed in 2009 during Sudan’s civil war with
the South Sudanese warlord General Matip, giving Heilberg’s Wall Street firm Jarch Management a long-
term lease to 400,000 ha of farmland under Matip’s control. Recent reports indicate that the South Sudan
government now considers the deal to be invalid. (Photo: Jenn Warren)

3. Mouammar Gaddafi
In 2008, Mali and Libya signed an agreement giving Malibya—a subsidiary of Libyan sovereign wealth fund's
Libyan African Investment Portfolio—a 50-year renewable lease covering 100,000 ha in the Office du Niger.
By 2009, Malibya had completed a 40-km irrigation canal and announced plans to produce hybrid rice. The
project halted in 2011 when the Gaddafi regime collapsed and Gaddafi was killed.

4. Miguel Maria de Sá Pais do Amaral
Portuguese aristocrat, businessman and amateur race car driver Miguel Maria de Sá Pais do Amaral began
an African farmland buying spree in 2007. Through his company Quifel Natural Resources, he acquired land
concessions in Mozambique, Angola and Sierra Leone totalling nearly 170,000 ha. His Mozambican
operations have now been sold off, and, in Angola and Sierra Leone, Quifel’s vanished without a trace.

5. C. Sivasankaran
C. Sivasankaran, one of India's richest men, started investing in oil palm companies in 2010 and soon after
developed an offshore structure of subsidiaries controlling over 750,000 ha across Asia, Africa and Latin
America. Sivasankaran was also amassing debts and in 2014 he was declared bankrupt by the Supreme Court
of Seychelles—leaving a big question mark over the state of his agribusiness investments and land
concessions.