Thread by @Gabriel_Pogrund

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”.

I spoke to Tom Dowling. He insists that, in actual fact, Ironduke is not dormant - its next accounts will show it now performs work for another company.

That company?

Ong (One Nation Group) Capital, a private investment fund based in Mayfair specialising in "Levelling Up projects". Its shareholders, he says, are sympathetic to the Tories.

Here's an intriguing detail.

Last year, a subsidiary of Ong - "Ong Residential" - tried to donate £2,100 to CCHQ.

CCHQ rejected the money, saying it was an impermissible donor - i.e. it broke the rules.

Dowling appears to have been behind the attempted donation. He says he is the "CEO designate" of Ong.

But his attempts to donate to CCHQ did not stop there.

He has also made donations via Ironduke. He says Ong Capital's shareholders are aware of this, but did not instigate it.

At first, Jeremy Hunt's association returned Ironduke's cash and CCHQ placed its money under review.

Remember: it is unlawful to take money from a company that does not carry on business in the UK.

Dowling appears to have argued Ironduke - though officially dormant - has technically been active for years.

How?

He told CCHQ it passes HMRC's "Badges of Trade" test - which evolved out of the Income Tax Act 1918. Among other things, this says a company may be conducting business - even if it is doing little - so long as the intention/motivation to make profit in due course.

This was good enough for the Conservative Party, whose director of fundraising, Mike Chattey, gave the green light, telling him it was "great news" the matter had been resolved.

The party has pocketed ~£25k to date - unclear if more to be disclosed in the coming weeks.

The question I have repeatedly asked Dowling is: why not donate personally?

Why instead donate through a dormant shell company on the brink of being forcibly dissolved to which he has no public connection?

Why donate through a firm which receives payments from a separate Tory-linked private equity fund?

Answer there has come none.

He insists however that he has followed the rules, that, though ONG Capital know about the donations, the money is not theirs, and that he is free to give money as he pleases within the law.

A Tory spokesman said: “All donors are checked in line with the Electoral Commission guidelines.

“All reportable donations are properly and transparently declared to the Electoral Commission, published by them, and comply fully with the law."
ENDS