Major Donation to U.K. Conservative Party Was Flagged Over Russia Concerns

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The cash was part of a fund-raising blitz that helped propel Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s party to victory in 2019. Records track $630,225 to a Russian bank account.

Ehud Sheleg in London in 2018. Mr. Sheleg is suspected of channeling money to the Conservatives from a Russian bank account belonging to his father-in-law. | Tereza Červeňová
LONDON — One of the biggest donors to Britain’s Conservative Party is suspected of secretly funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to the party from a Russian account, according to a bank alert filed to Britain’s national law enforcement agency.

The donation, of $630,225, was made in February 2018 in the name of Ehud Sheleg, a wealthy London art dealer who was most recently the Conservative Party’s treasurer. The money was part of a fund-raising blitz that helped propel Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his party to a landslide victory in the 2019 general election.

But documents filed with the authorities last year and reviewed by The New York Times say that the money originated in a Russian account of Mr. Sheleg’s father-in-law, Sergei Kopytov, who was once a senior politician in the previous pro-Kremlin government of Ukraine. He now owns real estate and hotel businesses in Crimea and Russia. » | Jane Bradley | Thursday, May 12, 2022

Oxford University Receives £26m Donation

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Oxford University has received a donation worth more than £26 million, one of the largest in its 900-year history.

The donation was made by Mica Ertegun, the widow of Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun, and will be used to set up humanities scholarships for graduate students.

The Mica and Ahmet Ertegun Graduate Scholarship Programme in the Humanities will see students worldwide compete for an award to study subjects including literature, history, music, art history, Asian studies, Middle Eastern studies and archaeology.

There will be 15 scholarships to start with, and eventually at least 35 will be awarded each year.

Mrs Ertegun said: "For Ahmet and for me, one of the great joys of life has been the study of history, music, languages, literature, art and archaeology. Read on and comment » | Wednesday, February 29, 2012

LSE Head Quits Over Libya Links
Organisations with links to the Libyan regime have come increasingly under the spotlight. In the UK, Sir Howard Davies , the head of the prestigious London School of Economics has resigned after disclosures the university accepted multi-million dollar donations from former student Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, a son of the Libyan leader.
Al Jazeera's Paul Brennan reports

Related >>>

Palestinian Tycoons with Libya Links Behind Tory Donations
THE TELEGRAPH: The Conservative Party has received a six-figure donation from a company owned by Palestinian millionaires who were developing Libya’s vast offshore oilfields, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

Palestinian billionaires Said Khoury (left) and Hasib Sabbagh. Photograph: The Telegraph
The business figures, who were well-known in the Middle East, built the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and reportedly had close links with the Palestine Liberation Organisation. They previously hired senior Labour figures as “consultants” but began donating money to the Conservatives shortly before the election.

The money was donated by a small British firm owned by one of their Middle Eastern holding companies.

During his first official visit to America this week, David Cameron was under intense pressure over BP’s oil contracts in Libya and the possible link to the release of the Lockerbie bomber. The Prime Minister has refused to criticise the oil giant – or call for a suspension of its drilling in Libya – to the irritation of some senior American politicians.

Next week, the US Senate will hold a hearing on whether the British Government and BP were involved in a decision to release Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi eight years into a life sentence. Jack Straw, the former justice secretary, has been asked to travel to Washington to give evidence.

The disclosure that the Conservatives received more than £100,000 from CC Property Company is likely to lead to further criticism of Mr Cameron and government links to Libya. >>> Holly Watt | Saturday, July 24, 2010

So Cameron’s government is beginning to stink too, is it? Everywhere you look, Middle Eastern money is steering the ship. Little wonder that Islam is becoming such a strong force in British politics, little wonder Cameron is unwilling to criticise BP, little wonder that he has no appetite for calling for a suspension in drilling in LIbya, and little wonder that the Conservative administration wants nothing to do with a ban on the Islamic veil. It would upset their paymasters, I suppose. Oh boy! It’s politics as usual in Westminster. Nothing much has changed. – © Mark

John Paulson's Donations to Carla Bruni Could Embarrass Nicolas Sarkozy
THE TELEGRAPH: French president Nicolas Sarkozy faced potential embarrassment on Friday after it emerged that the most generous donor to his wife's charitable foundation was John Paulson – the man whose hedge fund is at the heart of the US government's case against Goldman Sachs.

Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni. Photo: The Telegraph
The US investment bank is accused of defrauding investors by failing to say that Mr Paulson, a prominent hedge fund manager, bet against a Goldman sub-prime debt product that he helped design.

Mr Paulson correctly bet that the US housing bubble would burst, reaping a £10bn profit for his Paulson & Co hedge fund in 2007. The speculator banked a £2.4bn bonus that year in one of the largest payouts in the history of corporate America.

It transpires that Mr Paulson and his wife, Jenny, pledged to donate €500,000 (£435,000) to Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy's foundation "every year for three years". >>> Henry Samuel, in Paris | Friday, April 23, 2010

Haiti Earthquake Appeal: YOUR HELP Is Needed


BRITISH RED CROSS: A devastating earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale struck Haiti on 12 January 2010, killing hundreds and affecting thousands more. Please give what you can today to help thousands of people in desperate need of humanitarian assistance. Donate Now! >>>

Donation Hotline: 0845 053 5353 (24 hours)

AMERICAN RED CROSS: Washington – The American Red Cross is sending money, supplies and staff to Haiti to support relief efforts there after yesterday’s earthquake, which caused catastrophic damage and loss of life.

According to reports, as many as three million people may have been affected by the quake, which collapsed government buildings and caused major damage to hospitals in the area.

The Red Cross is contributing an initial $1 million from the International Response Fund to support the relief operation, and has opened its warehouse in Panama to provide tarps, mosquito nets and cooking sets for approximately 5,000 families. Donate Now! >>>

You may also call:

1-800 RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) – English

1-800-257-7575 – Spanish

For Google Checkout click here: Donate Now! >>>

SCHWEIZERISCHES ROTES KREUZ: Nothilfe für Erdbeben Haiti
Helfen Sie den Opfern: Nach dem schweren Erdbeben wird in Haiti eine Katastrophe befürchtet. Über die Zahl der Opfer und das Ausmass der Schäden herrscht noch Unklarheit. Das Rote Kreuz steht im Rettungseinsatz. Hier spenden >>>

AKTION DEUTSCHLAND HILFT: Aktion Deutschland Hilft ist das Bündnis renommierter deutscher Hilfsorganisationen. Gemeinsam helfen wir den Opfern des schweren Erdbebens in Haiti. Erdbeben Haiti: Sicher online spenden. Sicher Online spenden hier >>>

COMITÉ INTERNATIONAL DE LA CROIX-ROUGE: Haïti : le CICR contribue aux efforts déployés pour venir en aide aux victimes du séisme: Genève (CICR) – Le Comité international de la Croix-Rouge (CICR) coopère avec ses partenaires du Mouvement international de la Croix-Rouge et du Croissant-Rouge pour venir en aide aux victimes du tremblement de terre qui a frappé Haïti. L'institution mobilise des ressources humaines et matérielles pour faire face à cette catastrophe. [Source] Faire un don ici >>>

Germany Donates £50m to Auschwitz
THE TELEGRAPH: Germany has donated more than £50 million to a global fund that aims to preserve the site of the Nazi German Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland.

Auschwitz: Photograph: The Telegraph
The Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum said that the 60 million euros pledged by the German government represented half the total it needs to ensure the future of the Second World War site as a permanent memorial to the Nazis' victims.

"This is a great day! The plan for the long-term preservation of this memorial is becoming a reality," said Piotr Cywinski, director of the state-run museum and head of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation which was launched earlier this year.

An Auschwitz survivor, Wladyslaw Bartoszewski - a former Polish foreign minister who is considered a moral authority in his country and set up the foundation - hailed Germany's sense of "responsibility with regard to history". >>> | Thursday, December 17, 2009

Oil-Rich States Starve the World Food Program; Saudi Arabia Not Even on Donor List!
FOX NEWS: United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his top lieutenants on Monday are convening the first meeting of the U.N.’s Task Force on the Global Food Crisis. Ban says it will “study the root causes of the crisis,” and propose solutions for “coordinated global action” at a summit of world leaders in June.

Ban might want to consider convincing the oil-rich nations of the Middle East to provide more than the near-invisible amount of money they currently give to the World Food Program (WFP), the U.N.’s food-giving arm, which is charged with alleviating the food crisis.

WFP internal documents show that the major oil producing nations of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) gives almost nothing to the food organization, even as skyrocketing oil prices and swollen oil revenues contribute to the very crisis that the U.N. claims could soon add 100 million more people to the world’s starving masses. A Gulf in Giving: Oil-Rich States Starve the World Food Program >>> By George Russell | May 9, 2008

Hat tip: Dhimmi Watch

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