Lib Dems' £2.4m donor sent to jail

THE Liberal Democrats' biggest donor was jailed for two years yesterday for what a judge branded "very deliberate and pointed" dishonesty.

Scottish financier Michael Brown, 40, first gave false information in an affidavit and then tricked the authorities into giving him a new passport. The Glaswegian bond trader, whose 2.4 million political gift last year helped the party to pay for its general election campaign, was eventually tracked to Majorca earlier this year.

Police went to a villa he shares with his wife Sharon at Esporlas, on the island's west coast, and arrested him as he celebrated his 40th birthday, Southwark Crown Court in London heard.

The multi-millionaire, who also has another villa on the island and a home in Mayfair, central London, pleaded guilty to one count of perjury and another of passport deception.

Judge Geoffrey Rivlin QC said Brown's former bankers had concerns about the management of accounts opened in the name of his Switzerland-based bonds trading company, 5th Avenue Partners, "for investors had apparently provided you with $47.5 million with which to credit these accounts. This aroused the bank's suspicions".

As a result they successfully applied a number of orders, including one freezing his assets worldwide.

He was arrested as part of the fraud inquiry, bailed and ordered to surrender his passport. It was, said the judge, against that background that he resorted to perjury, by claiming in an affidavit $10 million paid into the accounts had been generated by dealing in bonds.

"You have now admitted this statement was a deliberate lie. In truth there were no trades and the so-called completed trade tickets provided by you were false," the judge said.

He told Brown, a whisky executive's son, that his "falsehood" was quickly exposed and this prompted the businessman to flee back to Spain.

But, in order to do so, he lied to the authorities to get a new passport, claiming his old one had disintegrated in a washing machine.

The judge said that, had his dishonest affidavit been accepted, it "could well have had a very real impact on the bank and therefore on the court's attitude to your situation".

Furthermore, by fleeing abroad he had managed to evade justice for some time, and put many people to "considerable effort and some inconvenience" to extradite him.

He went on: "I make it clear I'm dealing with you today only for the two offences to which you have pleaded guilty. I must not and I do not pay any regard at all to the initial alleged fraud of which you have been suspected and which is currently under investigation.

"Neither do I pay any regard to the well-publicised substantial contribution you have made to the political party."

Just before he was led to the cells, the judge added Brown would have to pay 80,000 towards bringing the HSBC prosecution.

Last night, a Lib Dem spokesman said: "There is no connection between the Liberal Democrats and the offences to which Michael Brown has pleaded guilty and has been sentenced today.

"The Liberal Democrats acted in good faith at all times in relation to the receipt and expenditure of donations from his company. We conducted appropriate checks on the source of these donations within the statutory timescale.

"All this money was properly spent during the general election campaign last year. Our accounts for the election campaign were independently audited."