The allegations that the UK Conservative party had an illegal property deal to raise money secretly from a foreign source using a complex real estate transaction connected with its former London headquarters have already been described previously. By means of this transaction, the party avoided stamp duty of more than GBP 600 000. Before the deal, the property had belonged to a BVI company Platinum Overseas Holdings Ltd. Now, new data regarding this matter has emerged.
The Tory party chairman, Francis Maude, appears to be the senior figure authorising the Conservatives’ controversial deal in order to buy their former headquarters through an offshore company.
Christopher Moran, a businessman, admitted that in 2005 he worked for the Tories to negotiate the deal. The party expects to sell the properties for more than GBP 30 million and to use a profit for funding the party’s election campaign. However, Moran emphasized that there had been nothing improper in the deal.
In 2005, Moran approached the US financial institution Citigroup, which acted for foreign investors who owned the property’s freehold through a BVI-registered Platinum Overseas Holdings. Moran said he could not have known who controlled Platinum, and Citigroup had not disclosed the identities of the investors to him. To buy the freeholds, he had to buy the offshore company.
In 1982 Moran was expelled by Lloyd’s of London insurance market for discreditable conduct, in 1986 he was censured by the Stock Exchange, and in 1992 he made a USD 2 million settlement after which he was accused of insider trading in New York.
Liberal Democrats stick to the opinion that even if everything is legal, buying the offshore company id not the way political parties should behave.