Revealed: Arron Banks met Russian ambassador 11 times - 7 more times than he last admitted - for two years Banks said his only contacts with Russian government was one “boozy lunch” with the ambassador, by @carolecadwalla & @peterjukes theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/j…
Russia’s ambassador to the UK, Alexander Yakovenko had introduced Siman Povarenkin to Arron Banks to discuss possible gold deals in November 2015 - the same time when the Leave.EU group, which Arron Banks helped to fund, had launched
theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/j…
theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/j…
In addition to gold deals Siman Povarenkin offered Arron Banks a deal with Russian diamond company Alrosa. Banks denied pursuing, but soon after the Brexit vote, Charlemagne Capital, founded by Banks' business partner Jim Mellon, invested in Alrosa
theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/j…
theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/j…
In Nov 2017 @J_amesp reported on Banks' link to Mellon and questioned if the millions Banks used to fund Brexit came from loans from Mellon "personally estimated to be worth £850 million who made “spectacular amounts” of money in Russia during the 1990s"
byline.com/column/67/arti…
byline.com/column/67/arti…
A June 17 2018 story in The Sunday Times described another company run by Jim Mellon, Regent Pacific which invested in a deal in 2012 with Andrei Pannikov, a Russian expelled from Sweden in 1988 for trying to recruit westerners for espionage
thetimes.co.uk/article/brexit…
thetimes.co.uk/article/brexit…
Andrei Pannikov - who was involved in a 2012 deal with Regent Pacific whose chairman Jim Mellon is business partners with Arron Bank - was the co-founder of Lukoil
independent.co.uk/news/business/…
independent.co.uk/news/business/…
Here's info on deal Jim Mellon was involved in with Pannikov - London Stock Exchange data showing Bayfield Energy Holdings, to be renamed Trinity Exploration and Production - Pannikov 17.79% owner, Mellon's Regent Pacific Group Limited 3.73% owner
londonstockexchange.com/exchange/price…
londonstockexchange.com/exchange/price…
Jim Mellon's Regent Pacific and Andrey Pannikov were both listed as shareholders in Trinity Exploration and Production in the 2016 annual report, and neither are listed in the 2017 annual report
trinityexploration.com//wp-content/up…
trinityexploration.com//wp-content/up…
One additional item about Arron Banks' business partner Jim Mellon - Mellon was once called the "Bad Boy" of emerging markets
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Wrote up a few items in this thread with a additional information I researched including connection from Jim Mellon's business with Kirill Dmitriev's Russian Direct Investment Fund in this story:
Note: the article and the headline quoted in the top tweet were amended on 8 July to clarify that LeaveEU campaign staff were present at up to 11 meetings with Russian Embassy officials, and that Charlemagne Capital is a fund management company.
