By Andy Ford, Warrington South LP member
Opposition parties have condemned proposals made by the Tories to revamp the Electoral Commission, which currently overseas elections and makes sure election laws are upheld. It regulates, among other things, spending and political donations and it is the latter that the Tories are keen to keep hidden.
A judge in London recently lifted one corner of the very large Tory rug that was hiding a lot of dirty money in Britain. Mr Justice Teare, in hearing a case between Oleg Deripska (Peter Mandelson’s friend, if we care to remember) and former Russian minister Victor Chernukhin, has given an assessment of Chernukhin and his affairs with the classic understatement of an English lawyer. Chernuhkin’s wife, Lubov (pictured above, with Theresa May, Tory ministers and MPs) is the biggest single donor to the Tory Party, having given given £1.7 million so far. She also paid £45.000 to play tennis with Boris Johnson, £30,000 for diner with Gavin Williamson and, most incredibly of all, £135,000 for a night out with…Teresa May!
Deripaska meanwhile, has obtained the services of Tory peer Greg Barker on the board of his company, paying him $7.8 million for his services, whatever they may be. A ‘lord on the board’ never does any harm, after all.
Property deal in Moscow
The case before Mr Justice Teare concerned a secret investment by Chernukhin in a Moscow property deal with Deripaska. Quite why a property deal in Moscow comes to a court in London is part of the web of crime and money-laundering described previously in Left Horizons – “London Laundromat of World Crime” (https://left-horizons.co.uk/index.php?section=7&page=335)
As the judge drily remarked, “Although it would be difficult for…an officer of a bank or junior minister in the west to accumulate wealth other than through his salary and other benefits…pursuant to his contract of employment, it is possible to see how Mr Chernukhin, operating in Russia after the collapse of the USSR…might have accumulated vast wealth by reason of his employment at Vneshekonombank (VEB)…he himself described the need for someone in his position to be discreet“.
“Mr Chernukhin has explained his unwillingness to enter into any formal arrangement by reference to the fact that that he was then deputy minister of finance and later chairman of VEB. I infer from this and of his acceptance of the need to be discreet that it was not advisable or appropriate for a minister or chairman of a bank to be involved in a private enterprise of this nature“.
$55m wealth from ministerial salary
Chernukhin estimated his own income as $55 million, and documents from the year of his marriage in 2007 set his net wealth at $500. How could he possibly make that money out of his minister’s salary?
In a new case, Chernukhin tried to have Deripaska jailed for contempt of court, with assistance from leading City law firms. At this trial Mr Justice Baker noted that “Mr Chernukhin did not give evidence even in writing, let alone be tested in cross examination. I am not satisfied that the claimants produced all the evidence I would have wanted to assess properly what Mr Chernukhin knew, when, and who was advising him.” He described the evidence as “misleading, or not the whole truth, or both of these together”. In plain Anglo-Saxon that means a pack of lies.
So Deripaska mounted a private prosecution of Chernukhin for perverting the course of justice over a 2004 deal. Thankfully for the well-connected Chernukhin, the Crown Prosecution Service took over the case, only to drop it “in the public interest”. The judge noted that it was not dropped due to having no case to answer.
Multiple donations to Tory causes
Meanwhile Brandon Lewis, ex-security minister, now the Northern Ireland Secretary, received three donations from Lubov Chernukhin to his private office totalling £14,500, and another £10,000 this February. And Ehud Sheleg, Tory Party treasurer and art dealer to Russian oligarchs in London, donated £10,000 to Lewis’ private office just before he was knighted this year.
Arise “Sir” Ehud Sheleg.
Putin’s Russia, a post-capitalist restoration, is a stinking cess pit of crime and plunder. And one of the main pipes transferring all this to the rest of the world is the sainted City of London, and their faithful servants, the Tory Party. No wonder the Tory Party is looking to neuter the Electoral Commission.
September 2, 2020
