Thread by @MartynMcL

EXCL: Russian & US billionaire owners of luxury private members’ clubs are among a spate of wealthy foreign nationals whose Scottish firms claimed £ms in furlough payments. Trump’s firms claimed up to £1.54m despite making scores of redundancies. Thread👇scotsman.com/news/politics/…

The Treasury’s job retention scheme was introduced last spring to support struggling businesses and prevent mass unemployment. With the initiative being wound up this week, I cross-referenced HMRC furlough payment datasets with Companies House records to dig into the £.

Skibo Ltd, the firm behind Skibo Castle, the Baronial pile and 8,000 acre estate now run as “one of the world’s most prestigious private clubs,” claimed up to £1.15m. Membership of the Carnegie Club is priced at £9,500 per annum, in addition to a £30,000 joining fee.

Skibo is owned by Ellis Short, the US founder of private equity fund, Kildare Partners. His fortune is estimated at £880m, up £20m on last year. Skibo’s most recent accounts show an annual profit of £603,000. Its ultimate parent firm, Scytherbolle Ltd, is registered in Bermuda.

The company behind the 22,000 acre Tulchan estate in Grantown-on-Spey claimed up to £130,000. It was bought four years ago by Russian vodka billionaire, Yuri Shefler, for a reported £25m. Forbes puts Shefler’s fortune at £1.67m.

Under Shefler’s ownership, Tulchan has become home to “the most private of private members’ clubs.” The annual fee starts at £95,000 a year. The estate company’s ultimate parent firm is based in Guernsey.

Balnagown Castle Properties, the firm behind Mohamed Al Fayed’s 65,000 acre estate in Easter Ross, claimed up to £40,000 via the job retention scheme. Its ultimate parent firm is registered in the tiny principality of Liechtenstein. Al Fayed & family’s worth? £1.7bn.

Firms which made redundancies during the pandemic also utilised Covid-19 relief. Donald Trump’s Turnberry resort claimed up to £1.32m, despite making scores of redundancies. Cumulatively, the former US president’s Scottish firms received as much as £1.54m from the Treasury.

Highland Spring, which is owned by Mahdi al-Tajir, one of Scotland’s richest men, received as much as £360,000 in public money. During the pandemic, the firm closed one of its plants and made 27 redundancies. Its parent company is registered in Liechtenstein.

Blackford Farms, the firm behind the 20,000 acre al-Tajir estate in Perthshire, claimed up to £70,000. Its ultimate parent firm is in the British Virgin Islands. Another al-Tajir firm, Ochil Developments, received up to £175,000. Mr al-Tajir’s fortune has been put at £1.68bn.

The publicly available HMRC furlough payments only spans the period from December ‘20 to June ‘21. Given the initiative started last March, that means 11 months of payments are excluded. The overall sums of public money claimed is likely to be considerably higher.

The Carnegie Club at Skibo Castle said it was “unable to comment” on my story. Tulchan estate, Balnagown, and the Trump Organisation did not respond to my enquiries. This is what I asked them.

A spokeswoman for the Highland Spring group said the furlough scheme helped it to protect “as many jobs as possible,” and support the firm’s “long term sustainability” at a time when it experienced a downturn in trading.

.@margarethodge MP, the former chair of the public accounts committee, told me: "It is totally unacceptable that billionaire business owners with companies based in tax havens have been able to take advantage of public funds through schemes like the furlough."

.@alisonthewliss, the SNP's shadow chancellor, said: "Multinational companies who have generated mass profits throughout the pandemic - especially those owned by entities in tax haven jurisdictions - should absolutely consider repaying the money given to them during the crisis."

Pat Rafferty, @UniteScotland's secretary, said: "The fact none of these firms have done anything apparently illegal goes to the heart of the issue. We argued the furlough scheme should have come with conditions attached and not literally give a blank cheque to rogue employers.”

The Treasury said: "We expect businesses to abide by the spirit of the scheme and they can voluntarily pay back money claimed if they no longer need the support."

To recap, I asked all the above firms if they had made voluntary repayments. No one could tell me if they had.