The ‘gold Russian’ Brexit : Arron Banks met with Russian officials
The National Agency against Crime, the equivalent to the FBI in the Uk, has opened a criminal investigation against the millionaire Arron Banks, who financed with nine million euros to the campaign Leave.eu, to the suspicion that a portion of the money could come from “unacceptable sources”.
Arron Banks had been investigated and fined by supeustas irregularities during the campaign of Brexit for the Electoral Commission british, faced with the evidence accumulated in the last few months has decided to refer his case to the NCA, the agency created in 2015 to combat organized crime.
The own Banks appeared in the past month of June a special commission of the Parliament and denied having received money from origin russia to fund his campaign. The billionaire and close ally of Nigel Farage, the former leader of the nationalist party, Ukip, is married to the Russian Ekaterina Paderina and acknowledged having had at least three encounters with the Russian ambassador in London, Alexander Yakovenko, during the referendum campaign.
The billionaire, who built his fortune in the insurance industry, he came to admit that he received the offer to invest in six gold mines in Russia, although the agreement did not catch on. Banks visited Moscow and met with several businessmen during the campaign for the Brexit. According to several british media, even inviting the ambassador Yakovenko to the festival for the night of the victory of Brexit in the polls.
The investigation opened by the National Agency against Crime focuses on two items: a loan of two million pounds received for the Better for the Country (the organization created by the millionaire) and an amount of six million pounds approved by the own Banks to Leave.eu, the campaign “alternative” Brexit (in front of the official campaign VoteLeave headed by the former holder of Foreign Boris Johnson).
“We have reasonable grounds to suspect that the money received for the Better for the Country comes from unacceptable sources,” said Bob Posner, head of the legal department of the Electoral Commission, which also considered as partially responsible to Liz Bilney, co-founder of Leave.eu. According to Ponser, Banks and Biney “hid to awareness the true circumstances in which he obtained the money”.
The Electoral Commission says it has found “sufficient evidence” for the ESTATE to pass directly to the action, such as the use of companies brought in Gibraltar and the isle of Man “that go beyond our scope”.
The news, in full final phase of the negotiation of the Brexit, has created a remarkable political turmoil in the United Kingdom. Labour’s Ben Bradshaw has called for the opening of “an inquiry in any rule, headed by an independent judge” on the “free russia” and the multiple irregularities in the two campaigns to the output of the EU.
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