Friday, April 21, 2006

EXCLUSIVE: LibDem Donor Faces Fraud Charges

THIS BLOG WAS TWO HOURS AHEAD OF THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA ON THIS STORY!

1pm: I've just been told that later today we will hear that Michael Brown, the guy who donated £2 million to the Liberal Democrats, is facing fraud charges in the UK and an application has been made for his extradition. Brown recently expressed his disappointment with the LibDems over their apparent failure to register his donation properly with the Electoral Commission. The Times alleged that his London office was a front and no one worked there. Donations from foreign companies are not allowed. Mr Brown told The Times newspaper how unhappy he was with the party: “If the people who handled my donation were elected to run the economy, I would not be happy — it would be disastrous,” he said. He told The Times in March: “It was my intention to provide the Liberal Democrats with further support and loan finance until the party unceremoniously sacked Charles Kennedy as its leader, which did not augur well for the future nor represent a good return on my investment. I never requested or expected any peerage, privilege or honour for my support of a political party.” It is not known what the charges relate to, and whether it has anything to with his LibDem donation. I suspect not. Brown was in trouble with the US authorities some time ago. Hat-tip to Yellow Peril, who posted at 12.31 that a LibDem funding story was about to break. It just has. Read more HERE.

UPDATE 2.15pm. The LibDems have just made this comment: "The extradition has no connection to the Liberal Democrats. This is a matter for the police and the relevent authorities".

UPDATE: 2.50pm LIB DEM DONOR ARRESTED IN SPAIN By Jude Sheerin, Scottish Press Association The Liberal Democrats' biggest political donor has been arrested in Spain, it emerged today. Businessman Michael Brown, who gave £2.4 million to the party last year, was detained by Spanish police in Majorca on Wednesday, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said. A spokesman said: "He was arrested on April 19 following anextradition request and our consular official has visited him in prison in Majorca on April 20. Next-of-kin have been informed.'' The Foreign Office was unable to give further details of the extradition request. The Electoral Commission launched an investigation last year after it emerged that Brown, who was not even registered to vote in the UK, had bankrolled the Lib Dems' election campaign. But the watchdog later found it was "permissible'' for the party to have accepted the cash from the financier's Swiss-based company 5th Avenue. Then party leader Charles Kennedy ordered an internal party inquiry into the controversial donation. The Glasgow-born tax exile, who claims to be worth more than £10million, later said he gave the money because he believed in MrKennedy's ability as a future prime minister "but not the muppetswho purport to serve him''. Brown spent some of his childhood in the US, where he has reportedly been accused of failing to pay £4,000 to creditors and skipping probation in Florida. The Serious Organised Crime Agency said the 40-year-old Scot's arrest was not linked to any investigation by British police. A Liberal Democrat spokesman said: "We are not aware that this hasany connection whatsoever with the Liberal Democrats. Any further action is a matter for the police and the relevant authorities.''

4pm: Still nothing on the BBC News website. What do their reporters get paid for?!

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very interesting.

But look what I've just seen, Iain.

http://www.w4mp.org/html/personnel/jobs/disp_job.asp?ref=2964

Sadly doesn't specify which Shadow Secretary it is, but claims that "Home Office experience will be an advantage" . . . .

Any ideas?

Anonymous said...

Sorry Iain - I am confused. What about the story makes it a "Lib Dem funding story"?

Nobody has ever argued that political parties should carry out a full audit of the business interests of all large donors complete with forensic accounts et al - that would be absolute madness and in any event probably wouldn't reveal fraud as fraud is by its nature highly secretive.

You need to carry out further checks before offering somebody a peerage but there was never any suggestion that Brown was interested in a peerage, still less that he was offered one (and of course he never got one). This contrasts with Lord Black in that respect.

Iain Dale said...

anonymous, oh get a grip! Of course it is of interest as a funding story. If the Conservatives had taken money from someone in this situation do you not think there would be interest in it? your final point is erroneous as I do not believe Conrad Black ever donated money to the Conservatives.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if Mr. Brown might be lucky that in the next few months it is quite possible that the one-sided US-Britain Extradition Treaty will probably be nullified until the US Senate finally ratifies its side of it, as Boris Johnson and a cross-party group of MPs are trying to do by seeking to amend a bill going through Parliament.

Jock Coats said...

Perhaps, given his more recent denunciations of the party you mentioned in another blog entry, a better spin on this would be "Lib Dems - the sort of party someone facing fraud charges would not want to run the economiy"...:)

Anonymous said...

This would be the same Michael Brown, who according to THE Independent withdrew funding from 'muppets'?

Anonymous said...

Black's donations went to things like the the pension fund for retired Conservative Party agents - it is documented in Hollinger Inc financial filings if you'd care to check. Not sure if that sort of donation is declarable. He was also big in funding right wing think tanks close to the Party. Actually I don't think it matters though - if he (or Brown) are eventually convicted it will be because they are criminals who posed as respectable businessmen for years - you can't really blame the parties they supported for that. It is not like Archer where everyone knew perfectly well what sort of man he was. "Jeffrey is Jeffrey" they used to chuckle.

Anonymous said...

I resent that.

Anonymous said...

Hmm. So the Lib Dem line has gone from "has no connection" to "we are unaware of any connection"

...

Anonymous said...

Eric, the possible demise of the US-UK extradition agreement would not help Brown. If he has been arrested in Spain, the relevent agreement is that between the US and Spain.

Anonymous said...

Not at all related, but just browsing various political sites came across this link that must make a great caption comp!

http://www.conservatives.com/getfile.cfm?file=photo-atkins-sausage&ref=PHOTO/OTHER&type=jpg

PoliticalHackUK said...

Anonymous...

Funny how this sort of mud is always meant to stick to the Tories and Labour, but this is nothing to do with the LDs.

Don't forget that Mr Brown donated a huge chunk of the LD's total campaign spending - proportionately far more than any other donor to any other party. He was living abroad at the time and the LDs were, as I recall, asked to review their processes on accepting donations.

The donation may have been within the letter of the law, but it is certainly arguable that it was not within the spirit.

Anonymous said...

The more I read about this, the more I think that this isn't any kind of story at all. The real story was the trouble the Lib Dems got into last year...and that's been and gone.

This just seems to be a story with the same character, but nothing to do with politics (unless something more is going to come out)

In fact, with Cherie's hair, its been a day of political non-stories in the blogosphere

Jock Coats said...

Indeed - the real story is how a donor has got a bit uppity with the party he once supported because, having been proportionately the biggest donor they ever had, he didn't get the influence he perhaps thought he ought to have. And, good riddance to him from my perspective if that was his beef. I for one was pretty appalled when they announced the donation in the first place

I am paying my own printing costs for this election. Not huge, admittedly, at less than a hundred pounds each time for a full ward leaflet three times, but nonetheless, that's what I think is a good "donation" for practical work on the ground that our party relies on day to day.

Billboard posters...what were they thinking of!

Jock Coats said...

jm wrote:

So the Lib Dem line has gone from "has no connection" to "we are unaware of any connection"

In the BBC story the context of this is quite clear. Are you aware that there is any connection between the fraud charges/extradition request and the Lib Dems?

Man in a Shed said...

Perhaps Ming is selling his Imperial Jag as part of a whip round to pay the donation back ? :-).

Don't agree with JM; this counts. I've never seen established in any satisfactory way why Mr Brown was supporting the Lib Dems anyway.