The businessman who bankrolled Brexit should face a police inquiry if officials cannot establish the source of his £8.4 million (Dh40.4 million) in donations to the UK campaign to leave the European Union, according to a leaked report by British lawmakers.
The MPs are expected to back calls for a limit on the level of individual donations for a political campaign following the controversy over the money spent by Arron Banks, an insurance tycoon and outspoken critic of the EU.
The £8.4 million represented the largest ever political donation in the UK and was followed by claims of possible foreign influence peddling surrounding the referendum to leave the EU, which was backed by 52 per cent of voters and is expected to happen on March 29 next year.
The lawmakers said they had failed to be convinced by Mr Banks’ explanations that the money had come from the UK following revelations of meetings between the businessman and senior Russian officials over diamond and goldmine deals. The report said that Mr Banks and a colleague misled the committee about the number of meetings they had with the Russian embassy, and then walked out of a session to avoid scrutiny about the content of the meetings.
Election officials “should pursue investigations into donations that Arron Banks made to the Leave campaign, to verify that the money was not sourced from abroad,” according to a leaked version of the MPs’ report. They said if there was any doubt, he case should be passed to the UK’s National Crime Agency, which handles the most complex cases involving serious and organised crime.
The finding was included in an 89-page version that was due to be released on Sunday, but was posted on the blog of Dominic Cummings, the Leave campaign’s director. He was criticised in the report for failing to appear before MPs.
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Read more:
Brexit backer Arron Banks 'met Russian ambassador 11 times' before EU vote, report
Brexit’s big short: how hedge funds cashed in on exit polls
Brexit backer Arron Banks dismisses row over Russian links as ‘full-scale witch hunt’
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The report follows 18 months of public sessions and the questioning of 61 witnesses during an inquiry into so-called ‘fake news’ that has broadened into questions about the role of targeted political adverts on social media, the conduct of the Brexit campaign, the role of the disgraced polling firm Cambridge Analytica and its influence over foreign elections.
The MPs said that the effect marked a crisis for democracy and called for new laws to prevent the voters’ data being abused by technology companies for political gain. The “relentless targeting of hyper-partisan views, which play to the fears and prejudices of people, in order to influence their voting plans and their behaviour” posed greater fears than obviously false information spread on social media, said the report by the digital, culture, media and sport committee. “Our democracy is at risk, and now is the time to act, to protect our shared values and the integrity of our democratic institutions.”
Tom Fletcher on 'soft power'
Our legal advisor
Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation.
Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.
Hamilton’s 2017
Australia - 2nd; China - 1st; Bahrain - 2nd; Russia - 4th; Spain - 1st; Monaco - 7th; Canada - 1st; Azerbaijan - 5th; Austria - 4th; Britain - 1st; Hungary - 4th; Belgium - 1st; Italy - 1st; Singapore - 1st; Malaysia - 2nd; Japan - 1st; United States - 1st; Mexico - 9th
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The Buckingham Murders
Starring: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ash Tandon, Prabhleen Sandhu
Director: Hansal Mehta
Rating: 4 / 5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Match info
Manchester United 0-0 Crystal Palace
Man of the match: Cheikhou Kouyate (Crystal Palace)
MATCH INFO
Watford 1 (Deulofeu 80' p)
Chelsea 2 (Abraham 5', Pulisic 55')
