U.K. officials won’t probe Russia-linked political donation
LONDON — British law enforcement and elections officials said they will not investigate a major political donation to the Conservative Party that had been flagged as a suspected illegal campaign donation in documents linking it to a Russian bank account.
The decision, announced late Thursday, lifts a legal cloud over one of the largest donations that helped propel Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his party to victory in the 2019 election. Lawmakers from the opposition Labor Party said the decision reveals a campaign-finance loophole that could be used by bad actors.
The contribution, of $630,225, was made in February 2018 by Ehud Sheleg, a wealthy London art dealer and one of the Conservative Party’s biggest donors. He was most recently the party’s treasurer.
The New York Times reported last month that Barclay’s bank later flagged that donation to Britain’s national law enforcement agency, saying the money originated in the Russian account of Sheleg’s father-in-law, Sergei Kopytov. The alert, known as a suspicious-activity report, showed the money moving in and out of empty bank accounts on its way from Russia to the Conservative Party.
“We are able to trace a clear line back from this donation to its ultimate source,” the bank wrote in a January 2021 alert to the National Crime Agency.
Kopytov, a Ukrainian citizen, served in the country’s previous pro-Kremlin government and, according to the latest Russian corporate filings, owns businesses in Crimea and Russia.
Kopytov and Sheleg, through lawyers, have denied any wrongdoing and said that Sheleg had been “completely exonerated.” They acknowledged that, weeks before he donated to the Conservative Party, Sheleg received millions of dollars from Kopytov. Their lawyer, Thomas Rudkin, said the money was a family gift and not intended as a political donation.
Political parties are prohibited from accepting donations of more than 500 pounds (about $615) from foreign citizens who are not registered to vote in Britain.
Kopytov is not listed on the national voter register, records show.
Both the National Crime Agency and the Electoral Commission, which enforces campaign finance laws, said in statements to the Times that they had decided not to open investigations after finding “no evidence” of an offense.
The National Crime Agency issued a similar statement in a letter to a Labor lawmaker.
“Provided a donation comes from a permissible source, and was the decision of the donor themselves, it is permitted,” Steve Rodhouse, the agency’s deputy chief, wrote in a letter. “This remains the case even if the donor’s funds derived from a gift from an overseas individual.” Labor lawmakers called this a loophole that would allow foreign citizens to funnel contributions through British donors.
“A person can give unlimited amounts of money to political parties if they are laundered through the bank account of a U.K. citizen,” Liam Byrne, a Labor lawmaker, said in a Parliamentary debate Monday.
“That is utter nonsense,” he added. “No doubt Mr. Sheleg is an honorable man, but the Sheleg maneuver could be exploited by all kinds of bad actors.”
Before deciding not to open an investigation, the National Crime Agency met with its lawyers and determined that it would not be possible to bring a realistic prosecution because of weaknesses in political financing
laws, according to a law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss details of the case.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has placed a spotlight on illicit money in Britain, and a push is under way to tighten campaign funding laws amid fears of corruption and foreign influence.
At the same time, however, the nation’s lead campaign-finance watchdog, the Electoral Commission, is fighting for survival. It has asked for greater powers to investigate donations for potential money laundering. But the Conservatives have branded the agency “not fit for purpose” and threatened to overhaul it.