All Tory donations vetted, says PM amid Pandora papers revelations
Boris Johnson has insisted that all Conservative Party donations are “vetted” after it was reported that a prominent donor was involved in one of Europe’s biggest corruption scandals.
According to an investigation by several major news organisations including the BBC and The Guardian, British businessman Mohamed Amersi - who contributed significantly to Mr Johnson's leadership campaign - worked for Swedish telecoms giant Telia on several controversial deals.
Leaked financial documents, dubbed the Pandora papers, are reported to show that Mr Amersi advised Telia on a complex transaction worth £162 million with the daughter of Uzbekistan's authoritarian ruler Islam Karimov. The Swedish company was later fined £700 million by US authorities over the deal and accepted that the money given to Mr Karimov's daughter Gulnara was a "corrupt payment".
Mr Amersi was involved in the payment to Ms Karimova using a Gibraltar-based offshore company in 2010. But yesterday he said he "categorically rejects" any allegations of wrongdoing. Mr Amersi said: "Exhaustive investigations have been carried out into Telia by multiple governmental authorities and no allegations of misconduct or criminality have ever been made against me. My work as an adviser has always been conducted appropriately and legally."
In a statement, representatives for Mr Amersi said the reports were misleading and inaccurate, and sought to "embarrass the Conservative Party on the first day of the party conference" in Manchester. They added the businessman "never knowingly facilitated corrupt transactions amounting to bribes".
They said Mr Amersi was only ever an adviser on technical details of the dealings between Telia and firm Takilant, and added Mr Amersi "did not know that Gulnara Karimova was the ultimate controller of Takilant". Mr Johnson insisted any donations made to his party were above board.
Mr Amersi's contributions included more than £100,000 towards the 2019 general election campaign and £10,000 to the Prime Minister's leadership bid. Since 2018, he has given nearly £525,000 to the party, the BBC reported.
Asked about the donations yesterday, the Prime Minister told reporters: “All I can say on that one is all these donations are vetted in the normal way in accordance with rules that were set up under a Labour government. So we vet them the whole time."
Earlier, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the Tory party carries out the required legal checks on donors. He told BBC Breakfast: "My understanding is we carry out compliance checks in line with the referendums and political parties legislation that was put in place by the Labour government."
Mr Amersi's partner, Nadezhda Rodicheva, has also donated large sums to the Tories - more than £250,000 in 2017 and 2018, it was reported. Mr Amersi's name featured in the leak of financial documents which allegedly cover the activities of 35 current or former world leaders, more than 300 public officials and 100 billionaires.