Carole Cadwalladr Profile picture
Feb 8, 2022 10 tweets 5 min read Read on X
More extraordinary scenes in the High Court involving Arron Banks.

LeaveEU - & its last remaining director, an ex-South African special forces intelligence officer - failed to show up to its own appeal.

judiciary.uk/wp-content/upl…
This is nuts. Even for Banks. Eldon Insurance & LeaveEU brought this appeal against the Information Commissioner. Then didn’t show up.

Also: curious dates. My libel trial ended Jan 21. 5 days later Banks’s solicitors @kingsleynapley ‘came off record’
Mr Jacobus Coetzee, the named director of LeaveEU who failed to show up to court, is an old associate of Arron Banks. On this exciting page of ‘Bad Boys of Brexit’ featuring all the greats inc Andrew Neil & the Russian ambassador, he describes him as a ‘South African spook’.
A refresher: this was the appeal Arron Banks previously lost. In the judgement, the judge noted - that the man suing me for saying he had lied - was ‘untruthful’ & had been ‘bullying’ toward the Information Commissioner

theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/f…
During parliamentary debate brought by @liambyrnemp & @DavidDavisMP during my trial, it was revealed MI5 had contacted the Information Commissioner - Liz Denham - to tell her it had evidence Banks’s private intelligence firm was illegally surveilling her

independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…
And who’s a director of Arron Banks’s private intelligence firm, Precision Risks & Intelligence? Why it’s only Mr Jacobus Coetzee. The ex-South African spook who seems to have had a change of mind about turning up to the High Court
And here’s the kicker. Who else was a director of Precision Risks & Intelligence? One Frank Mermoud. A Ukrainian gas specialist all over the Senate Intelligence Report. Enjoy this extract featuring Paul Manafort & a Russian spy, Konstantin Kliminik, discussing ‘the Frank plan’
Important to remember in interests of fairness & balance, that I’m a ‘crazy conspiracist’ who has caused ‘serious harm’ to Mr Banks’s reputation
Note: we still don’t know results of data audit, ICO was undertaking of Eldon & LeaveEU. Also Jacobus Coetzee, the SA spook - who had what to do with Brexit? - really got left holding the baby. He ended up as last remaining director when Banks resigned in Aug last year.
Final postscript. A bit more detail from the doc. In the days after my trial ended, @kingsleynapley ‘sought to come off the record as a matter of urgency in the days leading up to the hearing’. No clues as to why…🤷‍♀️

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More from @carolecadwalla

Oct 18
NEW: Police knew a Kremlin spy ring recruited former leader of Reform Wales at least 3 years ago.

So why was Nathan Gill not charged till Feb this year?

Pls read part 2 of @thenerve_news special investigation into Nathan Gill. And please share!
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Meet Nadia Sass.

This is the wife of the man who bribed Nathan Gill.

Today @thenerve_news reveals how she was a key part of the Kremlin operation that targeted not just Gill but at least 2 other MEPs and a member of the House of Lords.


2/ thenerve.news/p/nathan-gill-…Image
Meet the team.

Voloshyn - the man who bribed Nathan Gill - with his wife, Nadia Sass.

In part 2 of @thenerve_news’s investigation, we reveal their tag team approach.

But the UK police knew all this since at least 2022, the same year they fled to Belarus.

So what gives??
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Read 8 tweets
Oct 1
REVEALED: Donald Trump has picked Tony Blair for central role in Gaza ‘peace plan’…

…but in our inaugural investigation for @thenerve_news, we reveal extensive previously unreported links to Israeli defence, media & tech. 🧵
1/

(Link in next tweet) Image
Tony Blair’s Institute has taken nearly half a billion $ from tech billionaire Larry Ellison.

His company Oracle is deeply embedded in Israeli govt & military.

Larry Ellison is a personal friend of Netanyahu.
2/
thenerve.news/p/tony-blair-i…
In Israel, Ellison’s Oracle partners with Rafael Systems whose weapons are being used in the Gaza genocide & implicated in the deaths of British aid workers.

But that’s just the start…
3/ Image
Read 13 tweets
Aug 25
The targeting & killing of journalists in Gaza & the failure of the media to show collective solidarity & to take collective action is…incomprehensible.

I feel a such profound sense of shame & failure. It’s not just the death of journalists. It’s the death of journalism.
1/
This is Mariam Abu Daka, one of 3 journalists killed in latest strike, warning that journalists are being deliberately targeted & killed.

‘The Israeli occupation targets journalists because they tell the truth’

She calls for urgent international protection. It did not come.
2/
It is not that there has not been efforts to mobilise a collective response by press freedom orgs, including @RSF_inter, but there has also been silence , denial & cowardice from the prestige legacy outlets.

There’s a reason trust in all media is plummeting.
3/
Read 4 tweets
Aug 23
Nick Clegg made a reported £100m from Facebook. And now the reputation laundering begins.

Congrats to him on this magnificent PR coup. Nicely played, Clegg. A glossy magazine profile AND extract in the paper that created the Facebook PR crisis that led to his hiring.

1/ Image
It’s an abject reminder of how mainstream outlets are played by Silicon Valley, by the cosy rules of access journalism & the genre framing of the celeb interview.

Clegg never submitted to a proper interview in his time at Facebook & now gets to spin & whitewash & conceal all while still under a FB NDA.
2/
I understand why this was commissioned. The need for a culturally relevant ‘name’. The fact that many people will ‘hate-read’ it. It will get traffic.

But it also reinforces an impression that so many people have that the media is broken. Clicks & traffic & holding power to account are such competing incentives.
3/
Read 4 tweets
Jul 24
Earlier this year, I lost my beloved job at my beloved Observer when the Guardian, in its great wisdom, gave the newspaper away to a podcast company...who promptly sacked me.

So, forgive my delight today, in being nominated for FIVE awards in the British Podcast Awards!!
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Huge kudos to super producers @RuthAbrahams5 of Sergei & the Westminster Spy Ring & @GeorgiaJCatt & @ByrnesyGsy for Stalked.

Plus the brilliant & brave Hannah Mossman-Moore & Sergei Cristo 👏 👏 👏. Both FEARLESS in completely different ways.

2/bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…
But mostly, thanks for listening... & in Sergei's case for crowdfunding it. Incredible to be nominated alongside all the big companies for our indie DIY affair. Thanks also to @peterjukes for galvanising & dramaturgy.

And to BBC Sounds for being so punchy in naming Hannah's stalker

3/
Read 4 tweets
Jul 22
NEW: The court did not find a breach of the law.

BUT it upheld 2/3 points inc that foreign interference (inc disinfo) *is* a threat to fair elections (which UK had denied!)

Lawyers say hugely significant judgement with far-reaching consequences. AND that an appeal should be considered
1/
Here's the meat of the judgement. The court upheld the first two points. It only refused the third and final point.

The legal team said they were amazed by how far the court had gone in upholding the bulk of their arguments, and that the ruling opens the door to many other potential cases.
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The court agreed there were 'shortcomings in the Government's initial response'.

But it bought the UK's defence that a) it had already investigated foreign interference and b) it has put in place new legislative protections since.
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Read 8 tweets

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