MOGG’S MOSCOW MILLIONS

REVEALED: How the Brexiteer’s firm has poured a fortune into a string of Russian companies with links to Kremlin, including two blacklisted by the US, but has invested next to nothing in – yes, you guessed it – Brexit Britain

JACOB Rees-Mogg’s investment firm has a stake in a string of Russian companies with links to the Kremlin and to some of Moscow’s wealthiest oligarchs, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The hardline Brexiteer owns almost a fifth of Somerset Capital Management, which he founded and which now manages nearly £7.5 billion for wealthy private investors and City institutions.

On behalf of its clients, SCM has bought shares in two Russian firms blacklisted by the US and others which are controlled by powerful oligarchs in President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.

Despite the Tory MP’s avowed belief that the British economy will thrive after Brexit, the funds have almost nothing invested in the UK.

However, Mr Rees-Mogg distanced himself from the investments made by his company. He told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I have not run the investment policy for SCM for years. Contractually we can only invest in emerging markets and the UK is not an emerging market.’

The countries SCM has invested in include Russia, South Korea, India, Peru and Saudi Arabia.

Its Russian assets are worth £217million, according to the latest valuation by City data sources. They include: An £84million stake in internet giant Yandex, the Russian version of Google. Critics say its news section trumpets pro-Kremlin stories. It has also been accused of providing the Russian secret service with the bank account details and phone numbers of supporters of one of Putin’s political opponents.

A £44.5million holding in Sberbank, a lender that is majorityowned by the Russian central bank and widely considered to be an arm of the state. Herman Gref, its chief executive, is a long-standing ally of Putin and was minister of economics and trade from 2000 to 2007. He is also on the board of Yandex.

A £15.9million stake in Lukoil, Russia’s second-largest energy firm. Lukoil is controlled by Russia’s fourth-richest man and is on the US sanctions list. It was embroiled in controversy earlier this year when it emerged Lukoil staff had meetings with disgraced data firm Cambridge Analytica.

SCM has not broken any City rules by investing in Russia. However, Rees-Mogg recently said we ‘must not deal with Putin who has put himself beyond the pale’ for his suspected involvement in the Salisbury poisoning earlier this year.

And in March, he praised Theresa May ‘because she has learned the lesson of history that tyrants must be stood up to’ – in direct reference to Putin. Rees-Mogg also encouraged the Prime Minister to impose a freeze on Russian assets in Britain.

He co-founded SCM in 2007 with two others: fellow Old Etonian Dominic Johnson, who is the current chief executive, and investment manager Edward Robertson. The three still own most of the firm, which is named after the county where Rees-Mogg grew up, and where his constituency is.

The emerging markets the company specialises in are nations that offer the promise of high rewards – but at high risk – and are typically regulated by fewer rules than in the UK or the EU.

‘These Russian investments are not what you would expect to find in a Rees-Mogg fund,’ said Justin Urquhart Stewart, of Seven Investment Management.

‘As a politician, he has taken a hardline stance on Brexit and on Russia. So to have a fund investing millions in Russian companies goes

‘These investments go against all he stands for’ ‘We must not deal with Putin who has put himself beyond the pale of international diplomacy by his actions in Salisbury, let alone in Ukraine’ JACOB REES-MOGG, MARCH 14