The Conservative Party is facing questions over a £450,000 donation made by its Israel born former treasurer Sir Ehud Sheleg, over claims the money ultimately came from a former senior Kremlin politician.
The donation, which was made in 2018, was, according to a report in the New York Times, flagged to the National Crime Agency (NCA) last year.
Sheleg was appointed co-treasurer of the Tories under Prime Minister Theresa May, remaining in the post under Boris Johnson, before leaving his post last year having donated £3,800,000 to the party.
It is claimed Barclays Bank believed the donation actually came from the Russian bank account of Sheleg’s father-in-law Sergei Kopytov.
Kopytov, a Ukranian, had worked in the Minister of Internal Affairs, under pro-Russian president Viktor Yanokovych, before being a minister in the Kremlin-backed Crimea government prior to annexation. He left Ukraine as war broke out and is now in the Czech Republic.
A report in the New York Times on Thursday said an alert in January 2021 had claimed Kopytov transferred £2,000,000 to an offshore account linked to a Sheleg family trust via a series of seemingly inactive accounts belonging to Sheleg and his wife, Kopytov’s daughter Liliia Sheleg.
About a month later, the money was moved to a UK account shared by the couple, and a day later, the donation of over £450,000 was made to the Conservatives.
According to the New York Times, the alert by Barclays Bank stated: “We are able to trace a clear line back from this donation to its ultimate source. Kopytov can be stated with considerable certainty to have been the true source of the donation.”
Strict rules in the UK by the Electoral Commission state donors must be on the UK voting register to be a “permissible source” of funding.
Of course, the “transaction” may turn out to have been legal and above board … 