A former arms tycoon who has donated £33,800 to Harrogate district Conservative MP Nigel Adams is back under media scrutiny.
This morning The Guardian and the BBC published revelations from the “Pandora Papers” leaks all week.
The “Pandora Papers” as they have become known were a huge set of leaked tax documents revealing off-shore accounts and tax avoidance across the world.
Yesterday, The Guardian revealed that Russian millionaire and UK citizen, Viktor Fedotov, was the secret owner of a company that, it claimed, syphoned funds from a Russian pipeline and made at least £72m through offshore financial structures and tax havens. He has denied the allegations.
Mr Fedotov is now the majority owner of Aquind, an entirely separate company that is jointly owned by Alexander Temerko. There is no suggestion Mr Temerko had any knowledge of the possible origins of Mr Fedotov’s fortune.
Aquind is currently seeking UK government approval for a controversial electricity cable from France to England.
Between 2015 and 2017 Mr Temerko personally donated £33,800 to Nigel Adams MP, whose Selby constituency includes villages Follifoot, Spofforth, Weeton and Kirkby Overblow.
Mr Temerko and Aquind have donated at least £1.1m in total to the Conservatives. Mr Adams is one of eight MPs and ministers to have received donations.
The company has previously said all political donations had “complied with the relevant legislations”.
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Born in Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union, Mr Temerko was an oil and arms executive in Russia and is now a UK citizen. He is a member of the Conservative Party.
Aquind’s lawyers told The Guardian that the accusations against the Russian company previously co-owned by Fedotov were “completely false” and came from a “wholly unreliable” report.
The Stray Ferret approached Mr Adams for comment but we did not receive a response at the time of publication.
