Iranian-Indian origin donor to UK Conservative Party in Pandora Papers

A British citizen born in Kenya to a family from an Iranian-Indian background was allegedly involved in one of Europes biggest corruption scandals, a BBC investigation claimed on Monday.Mohamed Amersi, who has donated nearly 525,000 pounds to the UKs ruling Conservative Party since 2018, features in the Pandora Papers expose of leaked documents claiming he worked on a series of controversial deals for a Swedish telecoms company that was later fined USD 965 million in a US prosecution.

A British citizen born in Kenya to a family from an Iranian-Indian background was allegedly involved in one of Europe's biggest corruption scandals, a BBC investigation claimed on Monday.

Mohamed Amersi, who has donated nearly 525,000 pounds to the UK's ruling Conservative Party since 2018, features in the Pandora Papers expose of leaked documents claiming he worked on a series of controversial deals for a Swedish telecoms company that was later fined USD 965 million in a US prosecution. Amersi denies any wrongdoing.

Amersi's name is featured in a leak of almost 12 million documents and files, known as the Pandora Papers. They detail the workings of offshore financial firms in locations including the British Virgin Islands, Panama and Singapore.

Working with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and the Guardian, 'BBC Panorama' said it has obtained documents that show how Amersi was involved in a controversial USD 220 million payment to a secretive offshore company in 2010.

The firm was controlled by Gulnara Karimova – the daughter of the then President of Uzbekistan – and the payment was described by the US authorities as a ''USD 220mn bribe''.

According to the BBC investigation, the 61-year-old is a corporate lawyer who worked as a consultant for Telia between 2007 and 2013.

Amersi's lawyers said the offshore company had been ''vetted and approved by Telia'' and that its involvement ''did not raise any red flags'' to him.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson came under pressure to return Amersi's donations to his Tory party as the donations included more than 100,000 pounds towards the 2019 general election campaign and 10,000 pounds to Johnson's leadership bid. Asked about the scandal at the annual Tory party conference in Manchester, Johnson said all donations to the party were "vetted", but declined to comment on the specific allegations about Amersi.

"I see that story today. But all I can say on that one is all these donations are vetted in the normal way in accordance with rules that were set up under a Labour government. So, we vet them the whole time," Boris Johnson told reporters.

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