Thread by @carolecadwalla

Saturday, March 19, 2022. MasterInvestor conference, London.

Jim Mellon, LeaveEU donor, & ex-business partner of Arron Banks delivers his view on financial outlook post Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“There is no security on this earth, there is only opportunity.”

I’ve just deleted a thread on Jim Mellon because I want to first explain the difficulties we face reporting on public interest subjects in the UK.

Jim Mellon is a case in point.

In 2018, Mr Mellon sent legal letters to @ObserverUK, @nytimes, @thesundaytimes @nymag & me

The background is the stash of emails between Arron Banks & the Russian ambassador that @peterjukes & I reported on in June 2018.

It is this reporting that led to £1m+ libel suit Arron Banks has brought against me & for which I’m awaiting judgment.

theguardian.com/politics/2018/…

We reported the Russian ambassador introduced an oligarch to Arron Banks the day before he launched LeaveEU. He offered him 2 investment opportunities:

1/ A deal to consolidate 6 gold mines.

2/ An opportunity to invest in the privatisation of a state-owned diamond firm, Alrosa

We could see from publicly available info that the gold deal & privatisation of Alrosa went ahead in the weeks after the Brexit vote.

There was no evidence to suggest Arron Banks or any of his associates participated in either of these deals.

We have always made this clear.

But then @nytimes got the emails. And spotted something we hadn’t.

@ddknyt & @AllMattNYT reported that a fund management company founded by Arron Banks’s business partner & LeaveEU donor, Jim Mellon, *did* participate in Russia’s privatisation of Alrosa

nytimes.com/2018/06/29/wor…

The @nytimes report enabled @peterjukes & I to then report that Jim Mellon was actually cc-ed on the emails between Arron Banks & the Russian oligarch. And Banks tells him:

“I’ve chatted to Jim Mellon who is my partner in the bank..Jim knows the Russian ambassador as well!”

This is from @nytimes report:

“Three weeks after 2016 Brexit vote, the Russian govt sold the Alrosa stake…at a discount to the market price.

“Mr Mellon’s fund management company, Charlemagne Capital, was among a restricted number of investors who was allowed to participate.”

This is how we carefully reported it in @ObserverUK.

We noted Alrosa is run by the son of one of Putin’s closest advisors.

And Mellon’s detailed response: Charlemagne had previously invested in Alrosa, he owned 19% of firm, was no longer a director & had no knowledge of deal

Then the legal letters began. Libel campaigner @skcoughtrie wants editors & journalists to publish these letters.

So, here is is. This was sent pre-publication: ‘our client’s primary position [is] that no article should be published.’

Remember: this was *after* @nytimes report

Then more legal letters arrived. Every outlet that reported on Jim Mellon got one. This @nymag report by @jonathanchait originally included Jim Mellon. And now it doesn’t.

nymag.com/intelligencer/…

Jim Mellon’s lawyers then pushed @nytimes to “correct” its article.

The @nytimes declined. Instead, it added the information as an update carefully noting that this was provided *after* publication.

This is key. And it’s much harder to do in Britain because of our libel laws

And then, they came for me. I have been tweeting about Trump-Brexit-Russia since Feb 2017.

I have published more material on this subject from this Twitter account than any news outlet.

I do this because there’s literally been no other choice. But it carries significant risk.

For the purposes of UK libel law, I am treated as a publisher. I bear the same risks as a news org just without an editor, legal team or insurance.

In 2018, I engaged in lengthy correspondence with Jim Mellon’s lawyers regarding tweets I wrote about @nytimes & @nymag articles

Remember, this important reporting by @nytimes was never carried by BBC or other major UK outlets.

And, sitting here, writing this thread on a Sunday morning, one of many 100s threads since Feb 2017, is to conduct imaginary conversations with libel lawyers in my head as I go.

And I know that Dominic Crossley, Jim Mellon's libel lawyer, will be reading these tweets. But the silence of the UK media establishment on the FarageVerse at this moment in time blows my tiny mind.

Jim Mellon says he had no knowledge of Charlemagne Capital’s involvement in the Alrosa deal. And I’m happy to reiterate that - again - here. But this was one of the tweets which his lawyers sent me multiple letters about. A tweet which doesn’t even mention him. Beyond absurd.

I'm not allowed to write the words "Arron Banks" in @ObserverUK currently. Or even "Nigel Farage". The silencing is real. I don't know what @BBC's excuse is, though. Maybe @amolrajan does?

Instead, here's the great @NickCohen4 sneaking him in today:

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…