A great escape as 'anonymous' saved party from brink
Article Abstract:
The UK Conservative party faced a financial crisis in spring 1996, owing 11.4 million pounds sterling to the Royal Bank of Scotland. This prompted a very high profile fund-raising effort which greatly reduced the party's overdraft. In a period of just over 100 days between Apr and Jul 1996, donations cut the overdraft by 7,129,567 pounds sterling. In most cases, the origin of these donations was known only to a very few party members, even though the party had agreed to the recommendations of the Home Affairs Select Committee on party funding that large anonymous donations would be refused.
Publication Name: The Independent
Subject: Retail industry
ISSN: 0951-9467
Year: 1998
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The ultimate betrayal? Tories took money from a heroin baron
Article Abstract:
A donation of 1 million pounds sterling was made to the UK Conservative party in Jun 1994 by drug smuggler Ma Sik-chun, according a report in Oriental Daily News, a Hong Kong-based newspaper owned by the Ma family. It is believed that the family understood that the donation would make it easier for Ma Sik-chun to return to Hong Kong from Taiwan, where he has lived as a fugitive since 1978 after being charged in connection with one of the largest drug-trafficking operations in Asia. The Conservative party denies that it would accept any donation with conditions attached.
Publication Name: The Independent
Subject: Retail industry
ISSN: 0951-9467
Year: 1998
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Lunch in a Mayfair restaurant, a blacklisted company, and the Conservatives' link to Serbia
Article Abstract:
Serb businessman Zoran Tancic was able to give a donation to the funds of the UK Conservative party, even though his companies appeared on a US treasury department sanctions black list. Indeed, the Conservative party did not refuse the gift even though Jovan Zebic, a fellow director of Tancic, had been accused of using Yugoslav bank reserves to finance the war in Bosnia. This news is likely to put increasing pressure on the Conservative party to give more details about its financial arrangements.
Publication Name: The Independent
Subject: Retail industry
ISSN: 0951-9467
Year: 1996
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