British prime minister Boris Johnson has insisted that all Conservative Party donations are “vetted” after it was reported that a prominent donor was involved in one of Europe’s biggest corruption scandals.
According to an investigation by several major news organisations including the BBC and The Guardian, British businessman Mohamed Amersi — who contributed significantly to Mr Johnson’s leadership campaign — worked for Swedish telecoms giant Telia on several controversial deals.
Documents are reported to show that Mr Amersi advised Telia on a complex transaction worth £162 million (€189m) with the daughter of Uzbekistan’s authoritarian ruler Islam Karimov.
The Swedish company was later fined £700 million by US authorities over the deal and accepted that the money given to Mr Karimov’s daughter Gulnara was a “corrupt payment”.
Mr Amersi was involved in the payment to Ms Karimova using a Gibraltar-based offshore company in 2010.
He denies any wrongdoing, and his lawyers told the BBC the offshore company had been “vetted and approved by Telia” and its involvement “did not raise any red flags” with him.
Mr Johnson insisted any donations made to his party were above board.
Mr Amersi’s contributions included more than £100,000 towards the 2019 general election campaign and £10,000 to the Mr Johnson's leadership bid.
Since 2018, he has given nearly £525,000 to the party, the BBC reported.
Asked about the donations at a Network Rail site in Manchester, the Mr Johnson told reporters: “I see that story today. But all I can say on that one is all these donations are vetted in the normal way in accordance with rules that were set up under a Labour government.
“So we vet them the whole time.”
Earlier, chancellor Rishi Sunak said the Tory party carries out the required legal checks on donors.
He told BBC Breakfast: “My understanding is we carry out compliance checks in line with the referendums and political parties legislation that was put in place by the Labour government.
“Those are the checks that are required by law, those are the compliance checks that the party carries out.”
Mr Amersi’s partner, Nadezhda Rodicheva, has also donated large sums to the Tories — more than £250,000 in 2017 and 2018, it was reported.
Mr Amersi’s name featured in the leak of financial documents — dubbed the Pandora papers — which allegedly cover the activities of 35 current or former world leaders, more than 300 public officials and 100 billionaires.
According to BBC Panorama, which conducted a joint investigation with The Guardian, the papers reveal details of the way prominent and wealthy people have been legally setting up companies to secretly buy property in the UK.
Mr Sunak said HM Revenue & Customs will inspect the leaked papers.
Asked if he has benefited from an offshore arrangement, he told Sky News: “No. I haven’t.
