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Gabriel Pogrund

@Gabriel_Pogrund

Jun 21

EXCLUSIVE: Jeremy Hunt’s re-election campaign and CCHQ have accepted tens of thousands from a dormant shell company with undisclosed ties to a Mayfair private equity fund

The Tory Treasurer's department initially rejected donations from "Ironduke Management", fearing it broke Electoral Commission rules, then U-turned

Here's the story🧵

Ironduke Management is registered at 10 Piccadilly , but has no physical premises or website or phone number.

The sole director and shareholder is a woman called Jennifer Dowling. It's actually run by her husband, Tom Dowling, who describes himself as a tax consultant

Since its creation in 2018, it has registered itself as a dormant company.

It is currently the subject of a final notice from Companies House to file its accounts.

If it fails to do so, it will be forcibly dissolved in May.

Its last accounts said it had £1 in cash and assets and described the firm’s activity as “financial intermediation”.

Read 11 tweets

Gabriel Pogrund

@Gabriel_Pogrund

May 25

EXCLUSIVE: Labour has re-branded its flagship package of workers rights and employment reforms.

The New Deal will now be known as Labour's Plan To Make Work Pay

Starmer wants to sharpen core message of putting money in people's pockets and reassure business thetimes.co.uk/article/labour…

A final document confirms legislative process to start within 100 days of a Labour govt - rather than be completed within that time frame.

It still includes key commitments on reversing Conservative trade union legislation, ending fire and rehire, and introducing day on rights

It says business to be consulted fully before legislation is finalised.

And confirms watering down of zero hours ban.

Right to switch off to disappear from main branding.

Read 5 tweets

Gabriel Pogrund

@Gabriel_Pogrund

May 16

BREAKING 🚨 Pensions minister Paul Maynard found guilty of expenses breaches after inquiry by IPSA following Sunday Times investigation

Blackpool North MP Maynard:

1) used taxpayer funds to "produce overly political materials promoting the [Conservative] party and his re-election"

2) "under-reported" Tory use of taxpayer funded office

🧵assets.ctfassets.net/w59ykwiqehvh/5…

Maynard has been ordered to repay cash used to rent state-of-the-art printer and produce Tory leaflets.

He's made another repayment after claiming his party did not use his taxpayer funded office when it did.

And his abuse of the rules has led the IPSA investigator to propose all MPs are banned from using their offices for party purposes in any context.

Damning findings do not find wrongdoing over Maynard's extraordinary £106,000 total claims for printing - top of any Tory MP - as "comprehensive audit" impossible due to "resource constrains"

But two breaches are clear and admitted by MP, leaving him exposed to referral to standards commissioner.

Read 4 tweets

Gabriel Pogrund

@Gabriel_Pogrund

Apr 6

EXCLUSIVE 🚨 The Sunday Times has obtained "black box" data from a tracking device inside the Mercedes rental car used by Akbar Shamji — a suspect in the case of teenager Zac Brettler's death.

We have used its GPS data to create minute-by-minute reconstruction of his movements on the night.

It shatters his story and shows he lied to police repeatedly during their investigation.

Met had the data, but failed to analyse it in depth, so never confronted him about inconsistencies, such as his claim he was at home during fatal fall:

🧵thetimes.co.uk/article/the-de…

Former bankrupt crypto investor Shamji and gangster Dave Sharma were the last people to see Brettler alive.

They confronted him about money they felt he owed them before he jumped off a 5th floor flat opposite MI6 headquarters.

A coroner delivered an "open verdict" meaning his death was suspicious but its cause unknown.

Before and after his death, Shamji was driving a rental vehicle fitted with a state-of-the-art tracking device, whose data we have analysed over several months.

He told police he went home hours before Brettler's fatal jump at 2.24am. In fact, he was in the same building. He had returned after taking call from Sharma and suddenly speeding back at 80 km/h. He went upstairs and remained alone with Sharma for 11 minutes.

Data shows other striking details such as detour over Vauxhall Bridge just after he had gone down to the river by foot and "looked for Zac" in the water.

Read 5 tweets

Gabriel Pogrund

@Gabriel_Pogrund

Mar 21

Here's a vintage example of FOI vandalism I've been dealing with.

The department: David Cameron’s Foreign Office.
The subject: David Cameron’s lobbying career.

🧵

In January 2023, Cameron visited Sri Lanka.

While there, he met the president twice. Once at his residence. Another time at lunch with the British ambassador.

Within months, he was being paid to drum up investment for Port City Colombo, a highly controversial Chinese infrastructure project.

It is part of President Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative. Critics believe it could become a military base.

In November 2023, shortly after Cameron’s appointment as foreign secretary, I asked the Foreign Office for copies of:

1) any notes or memos about the former PM’s trip to Sri Lanka
2) any correspondence with his team beforehand

I specifically asked for any emails from/to Laurence Mann, Cameron’s long-term adviser who was involved in the Greensill scandal and who now works for the Foreign Office.

Under law, I was supposed to get a response within 20 working days. In other words, by 21 December.

Read 10 tweets

Gabriel Pogrund

@Gabriel_Pogrund

Feb 11

I was privileged to know Zac Brettler when he was a little boy.

Following @praddenkeefe's investigation into his death, I spoke to his extraordinary parents.

Today, they give The Sunday Times previously unpublished evidence about the night their 19-year-old jumped from a balcony after a confrontation with a gangster.

It poses huge questions of the Metropolitan Police. Like crime-scene photos of the blood-like smears detectives somehow did not swab or test... (1/6)

thetimes.co.uk/article/the-me…

And a photo of the glass balcony from which Zac jumped to his death. Even police believed it had been "wiped" before they arrive at the scene.

Again, it does not appear to have been tested... (2/6)

Texts on the day of Zac's death in which the gangster Dave Sharma told his associate Akbar Shamji: “He’s not allowed to run away now.”

And a message from Shamji, who said: "It’s going to be resolved, like one way or the other.” (3/6)

Read 6 tweets

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