Princely price of the ‘slush fund’ girls
From The Sunday Times, April 1, 2007
David Leppard
THEY were parties fit for a prince. No expense was spared by BAE Systems, the defence company, whenever Prince Turki bin Nasser and his entourage flew into Britain. The company’s executives knew that nothing less than the £12,000anight penthouse suite at the Carlton Tower hotel would do for a man accustomed to opulence.
Married to the niece of King Adbullah, the Saudi ruler, Turki owned various luxury homes across the world, 200 classic cars, a 230ft yacht and a private Boeing 707. But, as the then head of the Royal Saudi Air Force, he was also BAE’s best customer and the company went to great lengths to keep him happy.
After landing at Heathrow, the Saudis would be whisked to the Knightsbridge hotel in armoured limousines. Greeted by the manager, they were ushered into a private lift to the 18th floor. As the guests gathered to look across London, a personal butler dispensed Cristal champagne, and a three-piece band, flown in from the Middle East, struck up with the prince’s favourite tunes.
Among regular visitors to Turki’s London soirees in 2001 were Anouska Bolton-Lee, a 23-year-old former lingerie model, and Karajan Mallinder, a self-styled actress in her thirties.
The women were no strangers to celebrity. Bolton-Lee had once been a girlfriend of Leonardo DiCaprio; Mallinder was engaged to David Van Day, of the 1980s group Dollar. They were greeted by the prince when they arrived.
“They were clearly known to everyone and were made very welcome,” recalled one guest.
The women had been invited by Tony Winship, a BAE executive. Until December Winship, a silver-haired former RAF wing commander, was at the centre of one of the biggest corruption investigations carried out in Britain.
The 73-year-old was arrested in autumn 2005 by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). Investigators questioned him about allegations that he had helped BAE pay millions of pounds in inducements to persuade the Saudis to continue buying its jets. The £40 billion contract, known as Al Yamamah, was the jewel in BAE’s business crown.
For Sir Dick Evans, then chairman of BAE, it was vital to keep the Saudis sweet. By the time of the parties, in 2001, Turki was the key figure in this delicate piece of corporate diplomacy.
According to a businessman involved in the deal, Evans asked Winship to set up and run a special hospitality fund to keep the prince and his party entertained. Up to £60m was paid through Travellers World, a reputable West End travel agent, the SFO discovered.
The Carlton Tower parties were part of this global pattern of entertainment. Those involved saw nothing wrong – or illegal – in them. The company’s lawyers say privately that all the money that went through Travellers World was eventually billed back to the Saudis anyway, meaning they were paying for the largesse themselves.
But such extravagance was viewed in a very different light by the SFO. It discovered that Bolton-Lee and Mallinder were themselves being paid substantial sums while they were being invited to the Carlton Tower. The SFO believes they were acting as social hostesses – part of the overall programme to entertain Saudis.
One spreadsheet, for May 2001, shows that BAE channelled nearly £11,000 to Mallinder. Under the heading “Tuition”, the payments to her appear to include £3,306 for a “Visa card”; £2,298 for “Carlton”; £2,337 for “Abbey National”; and £2,019 for “council tax”. There were further payments two months later. A sum of £1,002 appears under the heading “Associates-Mallinder”.
On the same document, “Mallinder” is shown to have been paid £1,010. Other files refer to payments for “Mallinder mortgage (£448)”; “Mallinder expenses (£1,000); and “Mallinder language course (£326)”.
Bolton-Lee, now a presenter on MTV, received slightly less generous payments. She was living in a flat in Holland Park, west London. One document, dated June 2002, is entitled Flat Rentals for Ms Anouska Bolton-Lee. It states: “The quarterly rent is now due.” A contract note under the heading “Bolton-Lee” states that her quarterly rent is £4,274.
Another file shows she was paid “expenses” of £1,275 in cash. A further document – a monthly statement from April to May 2001 – describes a payment of £1,200 to “Miss Bolton-Lee (trainee actress)”.
The documents show that each of the payments was cross-referenced under the initials “PB”. According to a businessman involved in the transactions, “PB” was Winship’s code for principal beneficiary. “That was what they called Prince Turki,” he said.
The slush fund files, including BAE’s payments to the women, were a key element of the SFO investigation. But last autumn, after the Saudis threatened Downing Street that they would halt the contract and suspend diplomatic and intelligence ties unless it was stopped, Tony Blair intervened to end Britain’s biggest-ever bribery inquiry. Lord Goldsmith, the attorney-general, told parliament the decision was made “in the national interest”.
Robert Wardle, the director of the SFO, said he had decided that the 2½year probe could no longer be justified. He had been told that if intelligence links with the Saudis broke down, Al-Qaeda would cause “death on the streets”.
But opposition MPs and watchdogs were suspicious. Many in Whitehall, and at the SFO, suspected Blair, Goldsmith and others had simply caved in to Saudi blackmail.
“Goldsmith’s a bastard,” said a friend of Wardle. “This business showed he’s the most political attorney-general in decades.”
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the industrial countries grouping that monitors corruption in trade, smelt a rat. Under a treaty, inquiries cannot be stopped for economic or political reasons. The OECD is planning to send a team to Britain to interview Goldsmith and officials about the decision.
Goldsmith’s announcement was greeted with relief at BAE’s headquarters in Farnborough, Hampshire, though last week the company was taciturn. Asked about the payments, BAE declined to comment, following the SFO’s decision to terminate its investigation.
The two women were equally reticent. Bolton-Lee, 29, who has also featured as a hostess in the BBC’s The Generation Game and in a comedy film by Steve Coogan, declined to answer detailed questions about her links with Turki.
“I have no comment. I didn’t really think there was an investigation because they dropped it,” she said.
Asked whether she had met Turki and his entourage at the Carlton Tower hotel, she replied: “They were very good friends and friends of my family.”
Mallinder has previously claimed to have appeared in television adverts and the series Lovejoy and Poirot. Asked about her payments from Travellers World, she said: “I don’t know anything about any companies. I’m very good friends with Tony Winship. I love him to death. I don’t know anything.”
Asked if she had met Turki at the hotel she ended the telephone call.
Travellers World decided to stop paying the two women after taking legal advice when legislation was introduced in 2002 banning British firms making payments or bribes to foreign officials. “Our advice is that under the . . . act payments must now come from TBN [Turki bin Nasser] direct rather than BAE Systems. Failure to recognise this could render Travellers World and its directors liable to prosecution,” the company wrote in a private letter.
It was part of the SFO’s case that the payments continued after 2002 under another guise and it was homing in on that line when Goldsmith aborted the case.
Last week Peter Gardiner, owner of Travellers World, declined to comment. “All the company’s papers are with the SFO, to whom I have given a full statement. I am not prepared to discuss this matter further.”
Murky history
1985 Al-Yamamah deal to sell Tornado and Hawk war planes to Saudi Arabia.
1992 Allegations that Saudi royals were paid millions in kickbacks.
1993 Saudis buy another 48 Tornados.
2004 Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigates allegations of BAE Systems “slush fund”.
December 2005 BAE confirms it has agreed to supply 72 Eurofighters.
August 2006 SFO says BAE cash found in Swiss accounts potentially linked to Saudi royals.
December 2006 Lord Goldsmith, the attorney-general, announces that SFO is to halt inquiry.
March 2007 OECD says it will send inspectors to Britain to establish why Goldsmith halted the investigation.
