Tessa Jowell tells us she did nothing wrong. She merely signed documents to remortgage her home. She strongly asserted today that this was ‘a very normal thing to do, and certainly not illegal.’
It is indeed not unusual to remortgage, though it was unusual that she remortgaged with an offshore bank. It is also unusual to remortgage for as much as ‘400,000. But it is very unusual indeed to remortgage for ‘400,000, then pay off the full loan, within a month, with spare cash.
What sort of people do such a thing? Well, money launderers. If you have ‘400,000 of cash not easily explained, you now have remortgage papers available to show where you got it.
Now, where did the money actually come from? Well, on two occasions, David Mills has said in writing that it came from Silvio Berlusconi. He said so in a signed confession to the Italian police, which he now says was extracted under duress. And he said so in a letter to his own accountant, where he explained that it was not in fact a bribe from Berlusconi for the evidence he had just given in an Italian court to keep Berlusconi out of jail. It was rather a personal gift. Mills now says that this second occasion when he wrote that the money came from Berlusconi was in fact a lie to protect another client. One can believe him or not ‘ he is claiming to be a liar already. What we do know for certain is that, shortly after giving evidence on behalf of Berlusconi, evidence which Italian authorities now allege was perjured, David Mills received a lot of money from an Italian source, which he has difficulty accounting for and claims he needed to disguise. His wife then took out a mortgage for about the same sum, which they almost immediately then paid off again.
It stinks to heaven.
Mills is, beyond dispute, a confidante and adviser of the odious Berlusconi. Mills’ job as an international corporate lawyer is to help the cosmopolitan super rich move their money about and avoid tax, and to disguise their cash flows if necessary. Mills is a long term shyster whose activities and profession should appal Labour supporters. Everything Mills stands for is what Keir Hardie and Clement Atlee were against. So it should be of no surprise that he is close to Blair and a member of his personal circle. The day I decided Blair was calculating and self-seeking, rather than honest and misguided, was the day that Blair first chose to spend family holidays with the Berlusconis, at some of their palaces. But Blair’s friendship with the likes of Mills should have warned all of us sooner.
Now for something else you won’t find in the mainstream media. Mills was under long term surveillance by the Serious Fraud Office for numerous dubious financial transactions. Approximately nine years ago, his office was actually raided by the SFO. As the investigation drew to a close, New Labour came to power. An inside source tells me that SFO staff believed they had a good case, and wondered whether his friendship with the new Prime Minister Blair had any bearing on it not coming to court. A Sunday Times Insight investigation into Mills was spiked by the editors.
So these current peculiar financial dealings do not drop out of a clear blue sky. A lot of taxpayers’ money has been spent investigating Mills before. He is well dodgy.
What will it take for the eyes of the very many decent people still left in the Labour Party to be opened to the appalling people who now lead their party? How many of the current cabinet are not, themselves or their partners, personally millionaires? Blair has a ‘3 million house. Straw has a Cotswold mansion as one of his homes. We recall Blunkett’s dodgy directorships, and Mandelson’s loan from Robinson. Who do these people represent, except a self-serving, cosmopolitan elite? Is it any wonder they are so keen on privatising health and education, when they and all their friends can afford the best? And what does any of this have to do with the aims and origins of the Labour Party, or the hopes of those who elected them?
When you have sold your soul to Mammon, you end up doing things like launching illegal wars that kill over a hundred thousand and cost the taxpayer billions, but bring massive profits to your friends who own shares in oil companies or arms manufacturers. I have no doubt that some of those who have made a killing out of the Iraq War will have paid for Mills’ useful professional advice on offshore money transactions.
Mills and Blair will be close to those making a killing, but not those suffering the killing. It is hard to see that far from the marble terrace overlooking one of Mr Berlusconi’s private beaches.
Extremely well said. No comment needed – you've summed up this entire debacle with your usual eloquence. I agree 100%.
I can't help myself thinking of the Tory sleaze that Bliar was so hot on.
But New Labour has made sleaze and cover up into an art form.
If it was an offshore bank controlled by the money giver, the entire transaction might have been air.
In a somewhat related vein, read Nick Tosches "Power on Earth" about Italian 'financier' Michele Sindona, in which Sindona, who was in prison at the time of the interviews for massive fraud said construction was the best way to launder money, make clean money vanish, and that at least august European accounting firm would keep triple sets of books if asked.
Ah, so that's why construction projects are so popular with politicians.
Excellent piece. More detail please, as and when it surfaces. (A bit like watching a sewerage outfall – manure often floats to the surface – perhaps like so many of our politicians)
Drawing a relationship chart of the various 'acquaintances' (or is that, Paymasters) of the venal Blairs and their avaricious colleagues is also very instructive. Even just writing a list of all of these people is worrysome. Personal integrity is a commodity in remarkably short supply amongst these cronies.
Look at how many times people – senior politicians – have said in the past five years 'I've done nothing wrong', i.e. 'I've done nothing which the cops can pin on me'. Are they really expecting us to all follow this shining (or is that, disgusting) example?
Legality is not the same as Morality, but it's clear they all find the distinction too difficult or inconvenient to make. Time and again we've seen 'special case' pleading.
Enough! Think I'll just nip out to the garage to grease the axles and pump the tyres up on the old tumbril….
Craig,
It took you that long to work out the truth about Blair?
I've known since 1994, before he became leader of the opposition.
He helped his mate Lord Clive Hollick to commit fraud at Anglia Television.
Remember the Archer insider dealing? A lot more took place. I know because I worked there.
Have a look at this
http://p216.ezboard.com/frigorousintuitionfrm10.s…
As regards Jowell
It was a JOINT mortgage. Jowell was on the hook to the bank for half of the debt.
If that mortgage was repaid with money from Berlusconi then half that money was paid to Jowell. That is the legal position.
I can think of any number of reasons why a Foreign TELEVISION magnate might want to Bribe the Minister of the Crown responsible for British TELEVISION
Oh dear……Rover & The Phoenix Four and British taxpayers. First BMW wants to jump ship before the 2001 Election and Jon Moulton wouldn't employ enough voters so he was ditched in favour of Towers.
2005 Election and Rover is dead as a dodo until the revitalising injections of public cash allowed the whole workforce to stagger to the voting booth before being fired after marking their ballots
and the DTI found a deep dark hole to file the Report before the Australian took her secretarial skills to Health
As a kid I was told about my grandfather, a hard-working trades unionist, supporting Keir Hardy, and soon as I was old enough I joined the Labour Party. Nowadays those who pioneered that movement must be turning in their graves in disgust.
Not only do we get one minister linked with a money-laundering scandal, but her colleagues come on radio and TV telling us how unfair it is that we have had the information because Italian courts are picking on poor Signor Berlusconi!
He picks a fascist Foreign Minister, but entertains the Blairs on holiday. He owns most of Italian television and newspapers, but we are told he is being unfairly treated by the media!
And Tessa Jowell as minsiter could open British TV to further foreign ownership as well as freeing up casinos, but we must not suggest this has any connection with her husband's interests. This "New Labour"government is so remote from ordinary working people's outlook, let alone its founders' principles, they have not got a clue.
Like all good Italian political scandals this one has many of the elements of farce. New Labour is dodgy as hell anyway but Mills and Jowell are at least entertaining. On the day that Profumo dies, it's good to reflect that Tory scandals are usually about sex while Labour ones are mostly about money, while the Lib Dems do the kinky stuff. Poor Tessa, not noticing the suitcase of used notes with the Alitalia luggage tag. Maybe she thought hubby had been to Las Vegas to visit the Sopranos.