Deals, no deals, and dubious deals: Emails, files and warning letters from around the globe lay bare the trail of Brexit’s Mr Fixit
The strange business of Leave campaign’s mystery money man
The international business career of the former Scottish Tory candidate behind a mystery £435,000 donation that boosted the Brexit campaign can be laid bare today.
An investigation by the opendemocracy news website has uncovered official emails, bank transfer files, and court documents revealing an international trail of regulatory concern, legal action and debt linked to the global waste management business led by Richard Cook.
Mr Cook has so far failed to reveal the source of the donation from the Constitutional Research Council to the Democratic Unionist Party, used to pay for pro-leave campaigning in the final weeks of the 2016 referendum campaign. However, amid escalating questions around his business career, MPS are demanding that he is called to Westminster to explain the source of the money. Brendan O’hara, an SNP member on Westminster’s powerful Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Select Committee, said that Cook, a former vicechairman of the Scottish Conservatives, must “emerge from the shadows and explain where this money came from.” Today, we detail a series of international deals linked to Mr Cook and his waste management firm, DDR Recycling Ltd, which have provoked concern, revealing how:
● Mr Cook was a defendant in a California court case after his company DDR left an international haulage firm with unpaid bills of over $1.5 million. A judgement was made against him and DDR.
● An illegal shipment of old tyres to India was seized but Mr Cook continued to seek permission to ship rubber waste overseas.
● Mr Cook’s firm blamed an Eastern European firm for the problems with the Indian shipment but when authorities pointed out he was listed as a director of that company, he claimed his Linkedin account had been hacked.
● After Mr Cook resigned as director, DDR went into liquidation owing around £150,000 in tax despite allegedly depositing $5m in a Cambodian bank account as part of a gold deal.
Mr Cook strongly denies any wrongdoing but the fresh details of his business career in waste management have renewed focus on the payment made to the DUP.
The Northern Irish party retain an influential and potentially decisive role in British
politics. The source of the party’s Brexit cash is still a mystery due to Northern Irish laws around political donations.
Under British electoral law, parties need to know the source of their money but last year DUP treasurer Gregory Campbell said it was not his responsibility to check out Mr Cook and the CRC after an investigation by BBC Northern Ireland raised concerns. Westminster’s DCMS committee inquiry initially wrote to Mr Cook, the chairman of the Constitutional Research Council, about the donation in November. He claimed his response had been lost by the committee. However, we can reveal that Mr Cook then sent a reply to committee chair Damian Collins, described by sources as being “less than conciliatory”.
Mr O’hara said the businessman, who stood for the Tories in Holyrood and Westminster elections, must now come before MPS to explain his role in channelling so-called “dark money” to the DUP. More than half of it was used to pay for a wraparound pro-brexit advert in the Metro newspaper, which Mr Cook booked personally. Mr O’hara said: “I think he has information which would be useful to our investigation in relation to spending around the Brexit referendum. Where did this money come from and how did it get into the hands of the DUP? And why was it felt better to funnel it through the DUP rather than being open and transparent about it?”
Mr Cook told the BBC last year that he had not breached electoral law in relation to the DUP donation and he has denied all suggestions of wrongdoing and said concerns raised are baseless.
The Electoral Commission fined the Constitutional Research Council for failing to report the DUP donation but has declined calls to launch a full investigation into the source of cash. Judicial proceedings have been launched to challenge that decision.
As well as the Metro advert, the DUP also spent money on online campaigning with the Canadian data analytics firm, Aggregate IQ, used by the official Vote Leave campaign. This spending was permitted but has raised concerns of co-ordination between proBrexit groups. Undeclared coordination is illegal.
Vote Leave have already been fined and referred to the police for co-ordinating with another pro-brexit group amid continuing speculation about the financial support and structure of the campaign.