May must explain Tory donor's links to Russia, says Labour MP
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Version 0 of 1. A Labour MP has written to Theresa May to raise serious concerns about connections between a major Conservative donor who used to run the Lotus Formula One team and senior Russian politicians. Gérard Lopez, who it emerged on Thursday gave £400,000 to the Tories in April, is chairman of the board of Rise Capital, which recently signed deals for a string of infrastructure projects across Russia worth billions. Rise Capital lists as partners three Russian banks that had sanctions imposed on them by the US and EU in 2014 in the wake of the Ukraine crisis. Sergei Romashov, the managing partner of Rise Capital, is understood to be close to Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin. Jon Ashworth, the Labour MP for Leicester South, said the prime minister should explain the links between Lopez and the Russian state. “These new revelations raise further extremely serious concerns about this donation to the Conservative party. We need to understand fully the links between this Tory donor and his business interests in Putin’s Russia,” said Ashworth, who is a member of the shadow cabinet. In his letter to May, Ashworth asks about “the propriety of a major donor to the Conservative party having such connections to the Russian state”. On its website, Rise says it is helping to drive development in Russia by using public-private partnerships (PPP), despite problems created by sanctions. “On the backdrop of the general decline in state investment in infrastructure and the reduced access to resources due to the imposition of sanctions against the leading Russian financial institutions, the PPP is one of the tools for solving the current social problems of the state,” it says. Ashworth pointed out that Rise Capital “lists many banks, such as Vnesheconombank and Gazprombank and Sberbank, as ‘business partners’, all three of which had sanctions imposed on them by the US and EU in 2014.” The banks were made subject to sanctions because of their close links to senior Russian politicians. Lopez became the chairman of Rise Capital in June 2015, shortly before a major Russian deal was signed. He attended a ceremony to sign an infrastructure deal in the Yamal region alongside Igor Kholmanskih, the former foreman of a tank factory, who was catapulted into a high-profile political role by Putin. Ashworth said: “Theresa May’s Tories must make clear whether they were aware of these links when they accepted the donation. What’s more, Theresa May must now tell us what meetings and discussions she has had with Mr Lopez.” Lopez, who is based in Luxembourg, chaired the Lotus F1 team and was recently linked to a takeover of a French football club. He co-founded Genii Capital, which owned Lotus before Renault took it over. Lopez speaks seven languages and has business interests around the world. He is the co-founder of Mangrove Capital Partners and the chairman of brokerage firm Nekton, which focuses on Latin America and Africa. Nekton owns 50% of Rise Capital. Lopez’s companies appear extensively in the Panama Papers, the huge leak of data from the Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca that shows the many ways in which the rich can exploit secretive offshore tax regimes. A Tory spokesman said: “All donations to the Conservative party are properly and transparently declared to the Electoral Commission, published by them, and comply fully with Electoral Commission rules.” Lopez did not comment. |