The Conservatives have been asked to clarify whether they will hand back about 500,000 of donations from a company linked to a Venezuelan-Italian banker charged with conspiracy, bribery and wire fraud in the US.
Labour questioned whether the party should give back the cash donated by Britannia Financial Services since 2019 and was founded by Julio Herrera Velutini.
According to a press release on August 4th, Herrera Velutini was charged with conspiracy, federal programs bribery and honest services wire fraud in relation to an election in Puerto Rico in 2020.
The charges relate to the allegations that Herrera Velutini and another man offered campaign funding to a candidate to be the governor of Puerto Rico in exchange for her promise to appoint a new financial regulator. A bank owned by Herrera Velutini was examined by the Puerto Rico financial regulator at the time.
In November 2021, Britannia Financial Services said that Herrera Velutini had stepped down as a director and was no longer involved in day-to-day management of the company. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Britannia Financial Services, which did not respond to a question about Herrera Velutini still being listed with Companies House as the owner of 75% or more of the company.
The lawyers for Herrera Velutini said all charges against him were baseless and politically motivated and denied in full.
The Labour chair Anneliese Dodds called on the Conservatives to explain what, if any, Herrera Velutini had with Boris Johnson, ministers and party co-chair Ben Elliot.
A new broom is clearly needed to show the public that the Conservative party is committed to cleaning up its act, she wrote to Stephenson. This is your chance to make your mark as co-chair. Why would you call for Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak to explain what they will do to clean up the sleaze-ridden Conservative Party? In response to Dodds' letter, a Tory spokesperson said: Donations to the Conservative party are transparent and transparently declared to the Electoral Commission, openly published by them and comply fully with the law.