Thread by @docrussjackson

#THREAD

Who funds GB News?

Dubai-based hedge-funders & Christopher Chandler, a foreign billionaire who founded the Brextremist free-market Legatum Institute which has significant influence over Govt Ministers, & was accused by a Tory MP of “a link with Russian intelligence”.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1500803084255117313

So who is Christopher Chandler?

He's a New Zealand-born billionaire & founder & funder of Dubai-based investment company Legatum. He has an estimated net worth of US$1.7 billion, & has been called "one of the world's greatest contrarian investors" by Fortune Magazine.

Chandler launched & operated Chandler House, a department store in NZ, & in 1982, he & his older brother, Richard, took over the business & expanded it to 10 stores, adding fashion design, manufacturing & real estate, before looking for international investment opportunities.

In 1986, the brothers formed investment firm Sovereign Global in Monaco to focus on transitioning industries in Russia, Latin America & Eastern Europe - investing in assets which it felt were 'mispriced' in times of uncertainty AKA disaster capitalism.

According to Fortune Magazine, Sovereign “bet big on commercial real estate at the time of the transition in Hong Kong from British to Chinese control, when most of the world was profoundly pessimistic about the city's prospects” - but Sovereign seemed to thrive on risk & chaos.

Among Sovereign's major early investments was Hong Kong real estate after the signing of the Sino-British Accord; the Brazilian telecommunications industry, just after the country came out of hyperinflation; & in Russia, just after the fall of communism.

By the end of 1994, the Chandlers had bought a 4% stake in Unified Energy Systems, Russia's largest electric utility; 11% of Moscow electricity distributor Mosenergo; 5% stakes in each of the three main production arms of Yukos Oil Co.;

15% stake in Novolipetsk Metallurgical Kombinat, Russia's biggest steelmaker; & a small, undisclosed stake in Russian state controlled gas company Gazprom, the world's No.1 gas producer.

In 1997, the Chandlers invested nearly $1 billion for slightly less than 5% of Gazprom.

When Mikhail Khodorkovsky's Menatep Bank took control of Yukos in 1996 through a state auction, the Chandlers sold their stakes in its production companies and invested the proceeds in a further 10% of steelmaker NLMK, giving them a blocking minority stake of 25% plus one share.

The Chandlers used this to launch 'a governance crusade'. After armed guards prevented their representatives from attending the company's AGM, they teamed with Sputnik Fund, which also held a 25% stake, & sued in the Russian courts for the right to appoint board members.

However, Sputnik Fund - controlled by Russian financier Boris Jordan - sold its NLMK stake at a profit before the appeals process was finished. A decade later Sputnik's actions still rankled Richard Chandler.

institutionalinvestor.com/article/b150nr…

Gazprom was selling vast quantities of gas at below-market prices to a little-known company called Itera Group that Sovereign & others believed had close ties to Gazprom chief executive Rem Vyakhirev and other company directors, who held five seats on the 11-person board.

US Libertarian Charles Ryan was CEO of investment bank United Financial Group, the Moscow firm that advised the brothers. To combat Gazprom's abuses & release its value, the Chandlers backed a campaign by Ryan's partner, UFG Chair Boris Fyodorov, to gain a Board seat at Gazprom.

UFG was established with a Moscow based parent firm & an Isle of Man based firm managing its shell companies.

Ex-World Bank Director, & one of Russia's most prominent 'reformers', Fyodorov asserted that Gazprom was plundering corporate assets for the benefit of third parties.

In July 2000, Fyodorov was elected to the board over a management candidate. By teaming up with the government appointees, who were sympathetic to complaints about management abuses following the election of Putin in March 2000, Fyodorov changed the balance of power at Gazprom.

In May 2001, the board removed Vyakhirev as chief executive, moving him to the largely ceremonial position of chairman, & installed Alexey Miller, then deputy Energy minister, as his replacement. Vyakhirev stepped down as Chair a year later, replaced by Dmitry Medvedev.

With Alexy Miller, a confidant of Putin, stopping much of the transfer pricing, Gazprom's share price rebounded.

Sovereign sold off its stake between late 2002 and mid-2003, posting a 12.5% total return on its investment over nearly four and a half years.

In unseating Vyakhirev the Chandlers had saved their fund from a significant loss. "We finally left after nearly ten years in Russia because we felt we had done as much as we could in corporate governance and in shareholder rights."

In 2006, Christopher Chandler founded Dubai-based Legatum Capital as an independent venture separate from his brother.

The company was co-founded with Philip Vassiliou, & two GB News Directors, Mark Stoleson & Alan McCormick.

Legatum is an extremely influential, private, multibillion-dollar investment firm that puts money into companies in developing countries as well as the world's capital markets.

In April 2012, Legatum acquired its own building in Dubai.

Somewhat confusingly, Legatum Capital, based in Dubai, is part of Legatum Group, which funds the free-market think-tank 'Legatum Institute', which was founded in 2007, funded by the Dubai-based Legatum Group under its owner Christopher Chandler.

Legatum’s belief that Britain should remove all tariffs influenced leading eurosceptics like Steve Baker. Legatum's Shanker Singham, wrote that Britain could "maximise the benefits & minimise the disruptions of Brexit" by leaving the EU as soon as possible & removing tariffs.

I cannot stress enough how influential Legatum & Chandler have been (& continue to be) in shaping Britain over this last decade. Without them, imho it is extremely unlikely that Brexit would have happened.

And they're only just getting warmed up.

See @bakerstherald

In 2017 & 2018, British MPs, including Bob Seely, accused Christopher Chandler of links to Russian intelligence. Chandler has consistently rejected these claims.

In 2018 Chandler sued private investigator Donald Berlin.

buzzfeed.com/alexspence/chr…

In May 2021, Chandler revived part of his libel lawsuit against private investigator Donald Berlin, whose 2003 confidential report on Chandler’s activities, including alleged ties to Russian mobsters, fueled negative coverage in the British press more than a decade later.

Ultimately, the accusations made in Parliament about Chandler have apparently been proven false.

Chandler successfully revived the libel suit against Berlin in appeals court in 2021, enabling Chandler to receive partial compensation & a retraction of the statements by Berlin.

Obviously, given Chandler's background, experiences, ideology, funding of the free-market Legatum institute & now GB News - we all need to raise very important questions about the huge influence of foreign billionaires - be they from NZ, Australia, the USA or Russia - on Britain.