Tax haven link to BAE case

Tax haven link to BAE case
David Leppard

THE Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is investigating whether secret accounts in the tax haven of Liechtenstein were used by BAE Systems to make payments to the Saudi prince at the centre of a £43 billion arms deal.

The SFO said yesterday that its investigation into BAE’s alleged bribes for a Saudi jet fighter contract remained closed - although it confirmed it was actively looking at cash paid in relation to BAE contracts involving at least six other countries.

However, a spokesman said he could not discuss details of any “letters of request” it had sent to the authorities in Liechtenstein asking for help in pursuing its investigation into secret BAE payments to bank accounts in the tiny principality.

The letters to the country’s chief prosecutor are understood to request information about large sums of cash paid by BAE to a number of prominent individuals.
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Sources said they allegedly included Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the former Saudi ambassador to Washington, although the SFO yesterday specifically declined to comment on this.

Bandar is said to have received a total of £1 billion from BAE in connection with the Saudi arms deal. He has repeatedly denied any impropriety over the payments, saying such claims are “grotesque in their absurdity”.

The suggestion that the SFO believes some of the alleged BAE payments may have been channelled through Liechtenstein underlines the growing concern among British authorities about use of the principality for tax evasion and money laundering by wealthy individuals.

The Liechtenstein inquiry emerged after last week’s High Court ruling which found that the SFO had acted unlawfully 17 months ago when it was pressured to abandon its criminal investigation into alleged bribes paid by BAE to Bandar and other prominent members of the Saudi royal family.

Lord Justice Moses found that Tony Blair and his then chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, had allowed Bandar to “pervert the course of justice” after the Saudi prince threatened them with diplomatic, economic and security sanctions if the SFO investigation continued.

In a coruscating 42-page judgment Moses said Bandar would have “risked being charged with an attempt to pervert the course of justice” were he subject to British laws. Bandar has diplomatic status and is immune from criminal proceedings in this country.

The court’s judgment centred on an incident first revealed in The Sunday Times last June during which Bandar had marched into Downing Street in the autumn of 2006 and made a series of threats to Powell.

The Saudi prince had recently discovered that the SFO had gained access to a series of bank accounts in Switzerland through which some of the alleged bribes were paid.

The High Court referred to claims by two Whitehall officials whose description to The Sunday Times of the nature of the Saudi threat formed the basis of the judicial review.

“Bandar went into Number 10 and said, ‘Get it stopped’ . . . If they didn’t stop it, the Typhoon [fighter] contract was going to be stopped and intelligence and diplomatic relations would be pulled,” the newspaper reported.

The Saudi deal had been the subject of a three-year criminal investigation by the SFO which was finally halted by Lord Goldsmith, who was then attorney general, in December 2006.

Jonathan Powell's memoirs of Bandar's threats should be illuminating. Or not, as his brother Charles negotiated the original BAE deal as chief of staff to Margaret Thatcher. Small world, isn't it?

Brad Swain, London, UK

Tony Blair, Mark Thatcher, sounds very corrupt to me.

Neil, Gloucestershire, England