£245k BBC star cashed in as hired speaker for US bank giant
BBC presenter Jon Sopel is at the centre of a conflict of interest row after accepting tens of thousands of pounds from the biggest bank on Wall Street.
Mr Sopel, 60, is paid up to £245,000 a year in his role as the broadcaster’s North America Editor, covering all aspects of US news including politics, policy and business.
But the presenter boosted his pay by speaking at a string of JP Morgan events – despite it posing an apparent conflict of interest.
The bank is involved in nearly all aspects of American business, including highly controversial investments in the gun industry and fracking – both issues covered by Mr Sopel.
JP Morgan’s chief executive Jamie Dimon has also come under fire over his £25million-a-year pay packet and for clashing publicly with Donald Trump.
But despite these controversies, Mr Sopel accepted secretive engagements
Daily Mail, July 20, 2019 from the bank – though it is not clear how many events this added up to.
Mr Sopel presided over two sessions at JP Morgan’s Global Markets Conference in Paris in 2017 – which included an interview with Mr Dimon.
And in 2016, Mr Sopel appeared at JP Morgan’s Board Summit in New York, where he interviewed a former president of the European Commission about what Brexit ‘means for global business’.
Sources say he was paid around £35,000 for the Paris conference – roughly the average British annual salary. He is thought to have received around £20,000 for the New York event.
He is also known to have hosted other JP Morgan events, but the bank and Mr Sopel’s agent Mary Greenham declined to comment.
Miss Greenham said: ‘ He has done events for JP Morgan and the BBC are aware of this.’
The revelations could fuel further anger over BBC presenters accepting huge sums of cash for appearances that could call its impartiality into question.
Last week Question Time host Fiona Bruce and business editor Simon Jack were forced to pull out of a lucrative event for a firm accused of inadvertently helping criminals to obtain passports.
They withdrew after the Daily Mail revealed the conflict of interest involved in speaking at the Henley & Partners event. BBC bosses admitted this would have breached its guidelines.
Yesterday MPs claimed Mr Sopel has also flouted the broadcaster’s impartiality rules. Tory Andrew Bridgen said: ‘He is in the pocket of JP Morgan. It is difficult to believe, when he has taken money off them, that he can be impartial when he’s reporting on matters that impact Wall Street.’
The engagements could also cast doubt over his ability to be impartial when reporting on the US President. Mr Dimon riled Mr Trump last year after claiming at a conference he would beat the President in an election campaign because he is ‘smarter’.
Mr Trump responded on Twitter, saying Mr Dimon did not have ‘the “smarts”’ and branded him a ‘poor public speaker and nervous mess’.
The BBC’s rules state ‘public speaking commitments should not compromise the impartiality’ of the broadcaster.
They include a special provision for news and current affairs staff that they ‘should not chair conferences which are a promotional exercise for a commercial company that... is not impartial on a matter of public policy... or any other “controversial subject”.’
But yesterday BBC sources said the JP Morgan events did not represent a conflict of interests. A spokesman said: ‘ BBC staff are allowed to undertake certain outside engagements which they are required to clear with us, as long as they maintain objectivity and impartiality.’
The JP Morgan events are not the only occasions on which Mr Sopel has accepted a controversial speaking engagement.
Earlier this year, he spoke at an event by Philip Morris International, the world’s biggest tobacco company. The ‘ open mic’ event was held at a five- star hotel in Miami, where he regaled an audience with his tales of covering the Trump presidency, it was claimed by the cigarette firm staff.
Philip Morris told BuzzFeed that Mr Sopel gave ‘a keynote speech on covering the Trump White House’ but claimed it was ‘ an internal meeting and an off-therecord discussion’.
The arrangement sparked fury both inside and outside the BBC. One radio host said staff were angry that Mr Sopel was ‘foolish’ enough to accept such a controversial gig, amid fears the controversy could lead to a crack-down on the lucrative sideline hundreds of presenters enjoy.
The BBC said it did not break rules, but former BBC News director Richard Sambrook said: ‘So is he now prevented from reporting on Big Tobacco? Should be.’
This lucrative sideline has helped Mr Sopel fund an enviable lifestyle. He lives in Washington with his wife, but keeps a four-bedroom house in Hampstead worth more than £2million and a £1.2million flat in London’s Belsize Park.