Monday, September 25, 2006

LibDem Donor Jailed for Two Years

From the Press Association...

The Liberal Democrats' biggest donor was jailed for two years today for what a judge branded "very deliberate and pointed" dishonesty. Flamboyant financier Michael Brown, 40, first gave false information in a affidavit and then tricked the authorities into giving him a new passport.

The Glaswegian bonds trader, whose ?2.4 million political gift last year helped the party to bankroll its general election campaign, was eventually tracked to Majorca earlier this year. Dozens of Spanish and UK detectives descended on the villa he shares with his wife Sharon in Esporlas, on the island's west coast, and arrested him as he celebrated his 40th birthday, London's Southwark Crown Court heard. A few hours after he was led away, guests had been due to arrive at a party he planned for himself. The goatee-bearded multi-millionaire, who also owns another villa on the island as well as a home in Dover Street, Mayfair, central London, pleaded guilty to one count of perjury and another of passport deception.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

...however he denied trying to buy political influence, stating, "You must be fucking joking, it's the Lib Dems for God's sake."

Scipio said...

Hooray! Will he get his money back now then?

Anonymous said...

I suppose that means he won't be signing the accounts of his companies for a while then, .... and there are no other directors, so I suppose they will now be wound up.

Stephen Glenn said...

As the BBC have reported this court case has nothing to do with his donation and the Electoral Commission have already ruled that the donation was permissible.

Anonymous said...

It's pretty obvious that this sad git was pretty mad throughout all these events (even down to where he sat and waited to get caught!) -but not nearly as mad as the Lib Dems were to spend nearly all his money on those silly billboard adverts (except that is what he insisted they spent it on!)

Etzel Pangloss said...

Goood job he got rid of that ponytail

Anonymous said...

"Stephen Glenn said...
As the BBC have reported this court case has nothing to do with his donation and the Electoral Commission have already ruled that the donation was permissible."

So the Lib Dems are quite happy keeping cash from a convicted felon.

Doesn't say much about the Lib Dems probity and honesty.

As for the Electoral Commission they actually reserve "the right to say otherwise following the outcome of further legal proceedings". So wrong on that count.

And the "further legal proceedings"? is it something to do with this?

Why do Lib Dems avoid responsibility for everything?

Anonymous said...

Just under 10 Iain.
Guido is pushing 100s per blog weave.The wefts and warps on the blogosphere are coming so fast the stiches on the threads are somewhwt loose.But Guido is not censorising blog material like you.
Come on and tell us which seats you have been successful in,in this latest tranche.Give us a nibblet of excitement.

Iain Dale said...

Masterblogger, perhaps you might explain what you mean about censoring. The only posts I have censored are ones which contain the C word.

prolix said...

Iain, you'll hopefully be amused by my discovery - I know, it's usually 'fingers'

The Military Wing Of The BBC said...

Iain Dale said...
"Masterblogger, perhaps you might explain what you mean about censoring. The only posts I have censored are ones which contain the C word."

Iain - I have made a number of posts recently that have not made it to "air" despite getting the yellow band "confirming" publication, once reviewed.
Is their a tech fault developing somewhere?, because I also thought that you were censoring/editoring my posts.
About 75% of my posts no longer seem to be "aired"
For example have you recieved this
one?

Iain Dale said...

I have just checked with the Blogger editor and there were indeed about 20 posts which for some reason were still lurking, including one of yours. I have now authorised them all.

Just so you know, when someone posts a comment I get an email. I can immediately authorise. If, however, I am away from the computer, sometimes a backlog builds up and the odd one slips through the net. I usually check at the end of each day in the Blogger editor to see if I have inadvertantly missed any.

I can promise that I very rarely censor anything - less than 1 in 500 posts I should think. And that is normally because some anonymous twat has fired off a four letter tirade.

If you;re going to swear at least have the courage to put your name to the post. Otherwise you can f*** right off!

Anonymous said...

Did Stephen Glenn really say "As the BBC have reported ..." as justification for his point? I am not sure I have seen anything so funny in a long time, and that was before I saw Anon at 7:46pm. Come on Stephen, tell me something else that will make me laugh.

Tapestry said...

dishonesty is not a crime. lying in court is not even a crime unless it can be demonstrated to have materially affected a case.

James Higham said...

Far be it for me to support lawlessness but I've never been sure about the holier-than-thou morality in these matters. What of Jeffrey Archer, for example? Did such men do anything much worse than thousands on the political landscape?

Anonymous said...

Just to show even-handedness between sleazes, the Daily Mail paints a sorry picture this morning of Tory would-be PM David Cameron's friend and leading advisor Zak Goldsmith. The billionaire wastrel, says the Mail, "in articles and on BBC television's Question Time, he is hell-bent on telling the rest of us how to live. But one has to wonder if Zac Goldsmith is all he claims to be. Other ecologically aware people are entitled to question the petrol consumption involved in having homes as wide apart as his Chelsea house and his Elizabethan farmhouse in 300 acres of Devon. " When he is not cruising between country houses, Goldsmith is busy betraying his wife with a 22-year old billionairess and running an upper class gambling house. Goldsmith lives like an 18th century aristocrat, perhaps in keeping with the Eton PM-to-be's image; come the general election we will apparently be exchanging the indifferent and casino-building NL with the well-turned out sporting decadent Regency fop gentleman. Fantastic!!

Anonymous said...

Iain, you are methinks a little disingenuous about your censoring rules. Try letting through a few negative posts about Margaret Thatcher for example? I daresay this one will also mysteriously disappear into your forgotten email bucket.

Anonymous said...

Young Ming has commented:

"Am I Bovvered??!"

Iain Dale said...

Anonymous at 7.58 of do change the record. I have allowed plenty of anti Thatcher comments through. If you don't like this blog feel free to go and annoy someone else. And do have a look at Guido's site today where he explains when he deletes comments. He's far more censorious than I am. But it's his blog and he can do what he damn well likes with it. Just as I can.