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LNP
Lubov Chernukhin started donating to the Conservative Party in 2012
The husband of one of the Conservative Party’s biggest donors was secretly funded by a Russian oligarch with close ties to President Putin.
Lubov Chernukhin has given 1.7 million pounds to the Conservatives, including payment to spend time with the last three prime ministers.
Leaked files show her husband received $ 8 million (£ 6.1 million). The money initially came from a politician facing US sanctions due to her closeness to the Kremlin.
His lawyers say the donations are not tainted by the influence of the Kremlin.
A leak of the banks’ “suspicious activity reports”, called FinCEN Files and seen by BBC Panorama, shows that Vladimir Chernukhin received the money in 2016 from a company in the British Virgin Islands linked to Suleyman Kerimov.
- Everything you need to know about FinCEN’s document leak
Officials at Deutsche Bank in New York reported that it is among the $ 278.5 million of transactions involving the offshore company.
There has been a growing focus on donations to UK-based wealthy Russians’ political parties in recent years, and the Intelligence and Security Committee’s July parliamentary report refers to the possibility that people can “help Russian-influenced operations. “
‘Unsuitable and suitable donors’
Billionaire Kerimov is the owner of the largest gold mine in Russia and a member of the upper house of the Russian parliament. He has been under investigation in France for allegations of tax fraud since 2016.
In 2018 it was sanctioned by the US authorities, who were targeting those they said “play a key role in advancing Russia’s evil activities.”
Chernukhin, 52, is a former deputy finance minister to Vladimir Putin, who left Russia for London in 2004 after being fired by the president.
The Chernukhins, one of the UK’s most prominent Russian-born couples, are now British citizens and live in London.
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PA media
Vladimir Chernukhin with Vladimir Putin – fired as Deputy Finance Minister in 2004
Ms Chernukhin’s donations to the Conservative Party started in 2012.
The majority, more than £ 1.5 million, came after the $ 8 million payment linked to Kerimov was made to her husband on April 29, 2016, although it is unclear if any of that money went to the Conservatives.
Journalist and Russia expert Ed Lucas, who gave testimony in the parliamentary inquiry into Russian influence, told Panorama: “The Chernukhins, nice people who might be … are not the right people to make donations to a British political party.” .
Mr. Lucas said he was “deeply concerned about the access that not only Lubov Chernukhin, but also other wealthy Russians have to the heights of the Conservative Party and the government.”
Winning offers
Ms Chernukhin’s donations to the Conservatives have given her access to figures at the top of the UK government.
In exchange for £ 135,000, she was invited to a women’s dinner at a luxury hotel with Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet in April 2019.
And the 47-year-old has made two winning bids in an auction for tennis matches with Boris Johnson. The last one, in February this year, cost him £ 45,000.
In 2014 he paid £ 160,000 to play tennis with Prime Minister David Cameron and later with the Mayor of London, Mr Johnson.
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Getty Images, PA Media
In 2014, Ms. Chernukhin paid to play tennis with Prime Minister David Cameron and Boris Johnson (Images from 2013 and 2008)
As of this year, she is the largest female donor to the Conservatives in British history. According to Election Commission records, she has donated around £ 1.7 million in total over the past eight years, including £ 335,000 between last January and July.
When Boris Johnson, then Foreign Secretary, was asked in 2018 about the Chernukhins and donating £ 160,000 for a tennis match, he told BBC One’s Andrew Marr: “If there is evidence of serious corruption in the way in which that gentleman … … then it is possible that our law enforcement agencies will deprive him of his wealth. “
But he added that “all possible controls have been made and … will continue to be done” on donations.
‘Loan for real estate projects’
The $ 8 million payment to Mr. Chernukhin was made by an offshore company called Definition Services, which is controlled by Kerimov’s sons. The documents show that his funding comes from his father and it is Mr. Kerimov who has the personal relationship with Mr. Chernukhin.
As Deutsche Bank processed the money, it sent questions to officials at another bank involved in the transaction.
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The $ 8 million payment came from an offshore company linked to Suleyman Kerimov
They said it was a “loan between the two parties with the aim of supporting more real estate projects of the borrower” and that Definition was involved in real estate investments.
Despite the response, Deutsche Bank submitted a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR), pointing the link to Mr. Kerimov and the payment to Mr. Chernukhin.
Deutsche said the definition was “registered and banking outside of high-risk jurisdictions and the business purpose of the transactions and the relationship between the parties could not be determined.”
What do we know about Chernukhin’s finances?
Some of Chernukhin’s financial affairs have been made public as part of a lengthy legal battle with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska over ownership of a former industrial site in Moscow.
Proceedings in London High Court revealed that he established a trust for his wife and another trust for the benefit of the couple.
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Central news
Vladimir Chernukhin has been involved in a long-running legal battle in London
Ms. Chernukhin has been described as a former banker.
She is listed as a director of four UK companies. One of them shares the same correspondence address in London that is detailed in a bank document about the payment of $ 8 million to her husband by Definition Services.
The Chernukhin’s lawyers declined to say whether Chernukhin had received the $ 8 million.
But they said that “Ms. Chernukhin has never received money from Mr. Kerimov or any company related to him” and her “donations to the Conservative Party have never been tainted by the Kremlin or any other influence.”
They added that all their donations have been declared in accordance with the rules of the Electoral Commission.
Suleyman Kerimov’s lawyers said that he denies all the allegations made by Panorama and that he “had no dealings with Ms. Chernukhin at all.”
A Conservative Party spokesperson said: “There are people in this country of Russian origin who are British citizens and have the democratic right to donate to a political party. Many have openly criticized Putin and it is completely wrong and discriminatory to defame them all with him. same brush “.
FinCen Files is a leak of secret documents that reveal how major banks have allowed “dirty money” to move around the world. They also expose how US intelligence views the UK as a “higher risk jurisdiction” and shows that it is awash in Russian cash from inexplicable sources.
The files were obtained by BuzzFeed News, which shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and 400 journalists from around the world. Panorama has conducted research for the BBC.
FinCEN Archives: Full Coverage; follow the reaction on Twitter using #FinCENFiles; In the BBC News app, follow the tag “FinCEN Files; Watch Panorama on BBC iPlayer (UK viewers only).
