As the Conservative party continues its annual conference in Manchester, it has emerged from the Guardian’s investigation into the Pandora papers that a major party donor advised on the structure of a deal that was later found to be a $220m (£162m) bribe for the daughter of the then president of Uzbekistan. Documents show how Mohamed Amersi advised a Swedish multinational telecoms company on a complex transaction that it later accepted was a “corrupt payment”.
Amersi’s lawyers said any suggestion he “knowingly” facilitated corrupt payments was false and that the underlying arrangements for the deal had been put in place two years before.They said all his donations were derived from work done for legitimate clients and any suggestion that they were the product of improper funds was false.
Guardian investigative reporter Harry Davies tells Michael Safi that the fact raises wider questions about the work Amersi did for the telecoms firm, Telia, over a six-year period as it sought to secure lucrative business across the central Asia region.
The Guardian’s head of investigations, Paul Lewis, tells Michael that this investigation raises important question about politics, money and transparency in the UK.
Illustration: Guardian Design/Martin Godwin; Yves Forestier/Getty Images; Reuters
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