Lord Bell: ‘I was cleared of South Africa leak’
LORD Bell has claimed he was cleared by private investigators hired by his former firm Bell Pottinger over leaking information about the controversial work it did in South Africa.
The public relations agency went into administration last week after being accused of stirring up racial hatred in the course of its work for the billionaire Gupta family.
The PR firm fanned a controversy over ‘white monopoly capital’ to distract attention from the Guptas’ controversial links with South African president Jacob Zuma.
In June, Bell Pottinger hired corporate intelligence firm Pelican to find the source of leaks of internal emails and video footage of Ajay Gupta to South African media.
Bell was the firm’s chairman until he resigned last year after falling out with chief executive James Henderson over the South African work. ‘They hired Pelican to see if I was the source of the leaks on the Gupta account, which I wasn’t, and they subsequently wrote to me to tell me that they accepted that I was not,’ Bell said. Pelican did not respond to queries about the work. Henderson said he knew nothing about a letter.
A number of senior staff at Bell Pottinger have already joined rival firms, including associate partner and former barrister Antony Dunkels, who is understood to have joined USbased firm Mercury.
Heather Kerzner, fiancee of former Bell Pottinger chief executive James Henderson, is considering legal action against the firm to claw back her investment.
Partners in Bell Pottinger have become increasingly angry over tax arrangements.
As self-employed partners they could choose to be paid in full then pay tax themselves every six months or let Bell Pottinger pay on their behalf.
Around 30 partners who let the firm handle the payments now face tax demands of £25,000 to £100,000.