Former cabinet minister David Davis has called on the National Crime Agency to review Conservative Party donor Mohamed Amersi’s past business dealings, telling parliament the businessman “facilitated corrupt dealings”. .
Davis created a series of serious allegations It claimed that Mr Amersi, who is under parliamentary privilege, had abused the legal system to bring a defamation case against former Conservative MP Charlotte Leslie. A lawsuit against Leslie failed last year.
He said he was behind lies that Mr Amersi had bullied Mr Leslie and sexually threatened men, including physical threats and threatening letters sent to journalists and members of Congress from his law firm Carter Rack. was accused. Mr Davis said he believed it amounted to “criminal harassment” and said he would send a copy of the parliamentary speech to the Metropolitan Police for consideration to determine whether it constituted “criminal harassment”. Ta.
Conservative MPs for Mr Haltenprice and Mr Howden said the “appropriate legal authority should decide on his innocence or guilt”.
Mr. Amersi denied the corruption allegations, saying they were fabricated and that he had never been found to have engaged in any wrongdoing. He said the claims about Leslie were “absolutely false and completely false” and that in fact Leslie was the subject of a “well-coordinated campaign of bullying, harassment and intimidation by Leslie and her media and political cabal”. said that it is subject to.
Mr Davies made the claims in Parliament after the publication of a book by Guardian reporter Tom Burgis.
After his speech, Amershi tweeted: “David Davis has launched yet another misinformed rant against me in support of Leslie and to promote Burgis’s book. For the record, I would like to reiterate what I have previously said. 1. Utilizing parliamentary privilege, Davis bullied and lied about true facts. Don’t be a coward. 2. Every transaction that took place involved magic circle advisors and blue-chip banks. 3. I express all allegations in the strongest terms. 4. All transactions were subject to review by various enforcement agencies around the world and no wrongdoing was found on my part.”
Mr. Davis spoke in the House of Commons’ closing debate on Wednesday, outlining his views on Mr. Amersi’s role as an adviser on communications industry transactions in Russia, Uzbekistan, Nepal and Kazakhstan.
He said Amershi, along with a lawyer and businessman said to have been a front for Vladimir Putin ally and former Russian communications minister Leonid Reiman, advised him on a 2005 deal with Russia. It is said that he was The lawyer had previously denied this.
“The $4 million in Amersi transactions appears to have come from the proceeds of crimes against Russian nationals,” Davis said. [the lawyer]”
Mr Davis also implicated Amersi in a deal concluded in Uzbekistan by the Swedish telecommunications company TeliaSonera, in which Telia agreed to buy shares in a company run by the daughter of Uzbekistan’s president, and was later accused of “criminal activity”. This led to the discovery of Prices were significantly increased to gain access to the Uzbek market. The lawmaker said the company and its Uzbek subsidiary later admitted to paying more than $331 million in bribes to Uzbek officials.
“It’s Corruption 101: paying large sums of money to bribe people in deals that ultimately benefit members of corrupt regimes,” he said. “The U.S. Department of Justice has acknowledged that TeliaSonera ‘established a lucrative telecommunications business in Uzbekistan using bribes sent around the world through accounts in New York City.'”
Mr Amershi said he paid £500,000 for valuation and structuring advice on the deal, which was investigated by four enforcement agencies and found no wrongdoing by him.
The Conservative MP said: “Thanks to Mr Leslie, Labor MP Margaret Hodge and the tireless work of journalists like Tom Burgis, whose new book ‘Cuckooland’ I will be highlighting today, I know that he was deeply immersed in the world of twilight.” Behind-the-scenes bribes, creative accounting, and a whole lot of smoke and mirrors. ”
Mr. Amersi replied that this was “a figment of his imagination, which was rejected and negated throughout.” He said the claim that he was being paid £19,000 a day for advice on TeliaSonera was a “fabricated and sensational figure”.
He says every deal he works on involves world-class lawyers and bankers and requires approval from the deal team, management, board of directors and, in some cases, shareholders, while he is just an advisor. He said that it was only a matter of time.
Davis also outlined concerns about a deal in which Amershi advised Kazakhstan’s TeliaSonera, saying Amershi “facilitated large-scale and questionable business transactions for the benefit of bankers accused of being stooges of the corrupt Kazakh regime.” I did,” he said. He further expressed concern about the agreement that he said Amershi had helped facilitate in Nepal.
The businessman later replied, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” [Davis] ” I was talking about.
The politician said Amersi’s dealings in the former Soviet Union and Nepal “are therefore definitely something that the National Crime Agency should consider”.
Amersi has donated more than £500,000 to the Conservative Party and some politicians since 2018.
Mr Davies did not directly criticize the Conservatives, but said all parties were too ready to accept money from the wealthy. Mr Amersi said he supported charities and academic institutions and gave money “freely” to the Conservative Party.
Separately on Tuesday, Mr Hodge wrote to the Electoral Commission and the Met over a £200,000 political donation made to the Conservative Party in 2017 by Mr Amersi’s long-term partner Nadia Rodicheva. He called for an investigation into related questions.
Burgis’ book reports that the donation was originally intended to come from Amersi himself. However, at the time he was not on the electoral register and was considered an “impermissible donor”. According to the communication, a Conservative party official suggested to Amersi that the donation be made from Nadia’s account.
The Conservative Party did not respond to questions about donations, but said it “only accepts donations from approved sources.” Mr Amersi said the donation was made from Mr Rodicheva’s sole account, following a “long” process undertaken by the party to ensure it complied with the law. “As far as Ms. Rodicheva and I are concerned, no rules were broken,” he said.
Amersi said the party had been in direct contact with Rodicheva before accepting the donation. He added: “It is the Conservative Party’s job to answer what checks have been carried out.”
