Blair Inc--The Man Behind the Mask

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Blair Inc--The Man Behind the Mask Page 30

by Francis Beckett


  The visit to Pinchuk’s factory was at least the third time Blair had visited Ukraine since he left Downing Street in 2007. In 2008 the former Prime Minister was a guest speaker at a conference held in the Black Sea resort of Yalta and organised by Pinchuk, at which Blair pushed Ukraine’s case to join the European Union, the presidency of whose commission Blair was then widely tipped to take.

  Pinchuk has been a keen advocate of EU membership, setting up a firm to promote Ukraine’s EU credentials. Its directors included, until 2010, Stephen Byers, Blair’s former Trade Secretary, who, as we have seen, has also been active with Blair in the Middle East.37

  Blair and Pinchuk seem to have been introduced by Bill Clinton and senior staff at the Clinton Foundation, which has also received money from Pinchuk.

  Pinchuk has been accused of exploiting his relationship with the daughter of the president of Ukraine to grab state privatisations on the cheap, and of swindling two Ukrainian business associates out of hundreds of millions of dollars amid a mass sell-off of state-owned industry by the country’s leader at the time, Leonid Kuchma.38

  Born in Kiev in 1960, Pinchuk grew up in Dnipropetrovsk and studied at the city’s metallurgical institute before beginning a career as a research engineer in pipe production. He founded Interpipe in 1990, just as the Soviet Union was breaking up.

  He met his second wife, Elena Franchuk, in 1997, and they both left their spouses to marry in 2002. Elena’s father was Ukraine’s president from 1994 to 2005 – the years when Pinchuk turned himself from a successful businessman into a billionaire. Interpipe bought a 50 per cent stake in the Nikopol steel plant in 2003 for $80 million.

  Like many of those who became suddenly wealthy when the Soviet Union collapsed, Pinchuk faced the threat that a new government might want a share in his wealth, and the sale was contested two years later, following a change in government. Viktor Yushchenko, the president who came to power after the Orange Revolution, said, ‘Despite all of Pinchuk’s sniffles and groans, the factory will be returned to the state.’ In fact, Yushchenko was still in power when the privatisation was confirmed as lawful.

  The Pinchuks bought a house in Kensington in central London for £80 million in 2008, a then-world record price. The house has an underground swimming pool, gym, sauna and cinema, and now probably houses some of his contemporary art collection, reckoned to be one of the best collections in private hands.

  Pinchuk, who also has an office in Mayfair, is a major collector of Damien Hirst’s work but refuses to say which of the British artist’s creations he owns. He has also spent large sums on work by Jeff Koons, and in 2006 he opened the Pinchuk Art Centre in Kiev, where some of his collection is housed and where Hirsts have been exhibited.

  ‘To spend money is much more exciting than to make it,’ he once said.39

  Pinchuk was very much a player in the troubles in Ukraine at the start of 2014. Former President Viktor Yanukovych, now in exile, used to worry about the attitude of the oligarchs, of whom Pinchuk is one of the three most important, because they control much of the Ukrainian economy, and Yanukovych had not managed to place them under control, as Putin has done in Russia.

  Pinchuk’s television stations have covered the troubles extensively, and they were not sympathetic to Yanukovych’s switch away from the EU and towards Russia. Yanukovych’s enforced departure made way for a pro-EU government, and new president Petro Poroshenko is more to Pinchuk’s taste.

  Ukraine is now moving towards much the same position as the existing clients of Tony Blair Associates in that part of the world, as we have seen in an earlier chapter. Blair’s interest in the country could then include not just the TBFF taking money from the oligarch, but also Tony Blair Associates taking money from the government.

  We also know of a $1 million donation from a reformed Junk Bond King, Michael Milken. According to Andy MacSmith in the Independent,

  He was the 1980s Junk Bond King, who piled up untold wealth in the boom years, but came to grief at the end of that decade when he copped a 10-year jail sentence, a $200 million fine and a permanent ban on dealing in securities, after pleading guilty to six felonies, in what was then the biggest fraud case in the history of the US securities industry. The jail sentence was later reduced to two years. Since his release, he has reinvented himself as a philanthropist, contributing huge sums to medical research.

  The Wall Street Journal reports that the star guest at the annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills this week was Tony Blair. The former Prime Minister was asked about a number of topics, including his time as a wannabe rock star, at Oxford University, when he was lead singer for a band called Ugly Rumours.

  When the session ended, Mr Milken informed his ‘visibly shocked’ guest that he was donating $1 million to the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.

  So who else is there? We don’t know, and rumours are rife. One journalist who has done a lot of work on Blair’s activities told us confidently that the TBFF was funded by orthodox Zionists. But another journalist, Melanie McDonagh, wrote, ‘Tony Blair’s Faith Foundation [is] handsomely supported by Arab donors.’40

  Our sources tell us there are no Muslim donors, but do the government of Kuwait and oil-rich sheikhs associated with the government give money to the TBFF? If so, why? Is the government merely continuing to pay the debt it appears to feel it owes to the architect of the Iraq War, or is it expecting a return for its money, in terms either of the policy of the TBFF or in the statements made by Tony Blair?

  It is certainly the case that a very large proportion of its income comes from wealthy and uncompromising supporters of Israel.

  Defending its refusal to give the names of its big-money donors, a spokesperson told us, ‘The public absolutely has a right to know that any funding received by the charity has been used solely in furtherance of the charity’s aims. Company law and charity law set out a series of regulations and reporting requirements on charities precisely so that the public can have confidence in how registered charities are run. The Foundation complies with all its obligations under company and charitable law.’

  He went on to explain what these are, and added, ‘There is no requirement for a charity to list individual donors. We, like many other charities, don’t name individual donors in our accounts as many people prefer for their donations to charitable causes not to be made public. Individuals can of course make known their support of the Foundation if they wish.’

  It is the trustees, not the donors, who decide what the TBFF will do, he said, though it does accept donations for specific purposes. ‘But a restricted donation may not be accepted if the trustees are not confident that it will be spent in the interests of furthering the charity’s aims.’

  However, the TBFF will go a long way to please its big-money donors. In a 2013 advertisement for a head of communications, TBFF says, ‘TBFF is seen as a pioneering and innovative thought leader, and funder-friendly organisation.’

  And what of Mr Blair himself? It seems likely that he is giving the TBFF some money from his own enormous earnings, though we cannot know this for certain. We remember what an old friend and colleague of Blair’s said to us in an unguarded moment: ‘He says he gives money to his charities, but I don’t think he gives enough to his charities.’

  This is borne out by the fact that in 2012 the TBFF’s income started to fall off slightly, but Blair’s own income continued to grow. The TBFF reported an income of £3.66 million, down slightly on the £3.75 million that it received in 2010.

  Perhaps this is why, in July 2012, the TBFF advertised for a head of major gifts to join a four-strong fundraising team and report to the head of fundraising:

  We are looking to recruit an exceptional individual for this new post, who will help develop our international portfolio of Major Donors. Working at the most senior of levels, this individual will need to have at least 5 years professional fundraising experience with a proven track record of securing six and seven figure major gifts.

/>   The team, said the advertisement, ‘oversees all donor solicitation, engagement, donor events and donor management, from an increasing number of international sources that include high net-worth individuals, trusts, foundations, corporations and statutory bodies.’

  The long – very long – advertisement gave something of an insight into how fundraising for something like the TBFF works. It is not the sort of organisation that could go onto the streets and expect ordinary people to throw in the sums of money that ordinary people can afford. A charity chugger for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation would have a very hard sell indeed. Ordinary people might want to give comparatively small amounts of money to Oxfam, or Save the Children, or Crisis, but that sort of money does not go to the TBFF, and neither is the TBFF interested in sums of that size. It is interested in big money from very rich people.

  So, says the advertisement, the successful candidate will ‘manage a range of international donors and prospects, and will work … to ensure that each donor has the most appropriate and stimulating engagement strategy.’ Required attributes include ‘experience of creative cultivation, solicitation and stewardship techniques’ and ‘a track record of working with major gift prospects to secure six and seven figure gifts’.

  The culture of secrecy endemic in all Tony Blair’s operations must be retained. The post holder would ‘work alongside people from the other Tony Blair organisations, and will have access to confidential information … They will be required to sign a confidentiality agreement.’

  However, no appointment was made, and there are no plans to reopen the appointment.

  Interns are taken on, unpaid, for three months. Even they have to sign a confidentiality agreement. They are told, ‘Your Volunteer Internship Agreement will contain a confidentiality clause. During your internship you may be exposed to sensitive data, and therefore confidentiality is extremely important.’

  The Liberal Conspiracy blog reported TBFF posting advertisements for an external-affairs intern and an education intern, both lasting for a period of three months.

  Making use of unpaid interns is controversial. Blair’s office told Liberal Conspiracy that the Office of Tony Blair does have interns, but it pays them the London living wage. However, the office says, the Blair charities, such as the TBFF, have their own policies and, ‘as charitable organisations, they have volunteers’.

  It goes on:

  Like all charities who rely on those motivated to help their cause, the Tony Blair Faith Foundation values the contribution of those who volunteer for us. By volunteering our interns are giving practical support to help prevent religious prejudice, conflict and extremism, helping current leaders and the next generation understand the impact and complexity of religion in the world.41

  This confuses the words volunteer and intern. A volunteer is not an unpaid intern. What TBFF and the other charities have is not volunteers, but unpaid interns. The TBFF justifies this on the grounds that it is a charity, but it is hardly the sort of charity to which a young person might wish to donate their time for charitable reasons – in other words, to volunteer. For the TBFF, taking on unpaid labour is not the same as for, say, Oxfam or Amnesty.

  If they go to work for the TBFF as an intern, they are probably doing so in the same spirit as they might if they were an intern in a commercial organisation. They are hoping for good experience, exposure to exciting work and the possibility of a job at the end of it. And the TBFF knows that, for its statement goes on: ‘In return, participants get all we can offer in terms of a structured programme of professional development.’

  Our information is that the TBFF does not deliver this. Its interns, in at least some cases, are simply unpaid labour, doing the boring work for nothing. We are aware of people who already have a decade or so of relevant experience applying for paid work, and being offered unpaid work in their field of expertise instead.

  One such person was told that paid data-input work was available; that it might well be repetitive and boring, but would require a high degree of accuracy; that it would be commercially confidential and the person would need to sign a confidentiality agreement; that it would be based in a satellite office in Stanmore; and that the person would need to agree with the core proposition of the project.

  The offer, when it came, was all these things – but as an unpaid intern, doing boring data-input work for which the person had earned a living doing for some years, and in Stanmore, way out of reach of the heart of the TBFF’s operations in Marble Arch and well away from anything interesting.

  THE MINOR PARTNER: THE TONY BLAIR SPORTS FOUNDATION

  The Tony Blair Sports Foundation was launched in 2007 for Blair to ‘give something back to the North East.’42 It aims to encourage more people in the region to take part in sports. What figures and anecdotal evidence we have suggests that it is struggling, and not making a huge contribution to the region. It appears not even to have its own website, just a very uninformative page on the website of the Office of Tony Blair.

  After working its way up to an income of £348,233 in the year ending 31 March 2010, it brought in only £37,576 the following year, less than half what it spent on staff.

  It does not sound as though Blair is making the same effort with his rich contacts for his Sports Foundation as he is for his Faith Foundation. He has told the staff, and any volunteers the charity may have, to go out and raise money, and he will match everything they raise, pound for pound.43 This is quite a common method for a very rich man to donate money to a charity – but extremely odd when it is his own charity and bears his name. Further, it requires the staff and volunteers to go out and combat the hostility that the mention of his name will arouse in many circles in order to bring in money.

  CONCLUSION

  If the Faith Foundation was what Tony Blair wanted to work on for the rest of his life, just what was it that he thought he wanted to do? Its objectives seem ill-defined and contradictory. Its work is mostly not what we associate with charity, and it is certainly not charitable towards Islam. Sometimes it feels like a recruiting sergeant for faith – almost any faith, so long as it’s not Islam.

  Its secret donors’ list will one day make fascinating reading, but we know enough already to be sure of two things. Firstly, most of them, if not all of them, would cease to donate if Blair ever fell out with Israel, surely an awkward position for the Middle East envoy to be in. And secondly, they are all very seriously rich. The well-intentioned person with a modest income and a bit of money to spare for a good cause is not the sort of donor the Tony Blair Faith Foundation has any interest in. Its advisers and funders are the wealthy and the well-connected. It is staffed by more than its fair share of bankers, and they occupy both top positions.

  Perhaps Tony Blair has forgotten the quote from Jesus in the Gospel according to St Matthew: ‘And again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.’

  Notes

  1 www.tonyblairoffice.org, 3 April 2008: http://www.tonyblairoffice.org/

  news/entry/millennium-development-goals-

  are-litmus-test-of-worlds-values/

  2 www.tonyblairoffice.org, 5 December 2008: http://www.tonyblairoffice.org

  /news/entry/tony-blair-and-belinda-stronach-

  join-together-to-support-faiths-act-fellows/

  3 www.tonyblairoffice.org, 30 March 2009: http://www.tonyblairoffice.org

  /news/entry/bringing-people-together-across-

  faith-communities-for-action-in-africa/

  4 www.tonyblairoffice.org, 15 April 2009: http://www.tonyblairoffice.org/news/

  entry/ten-uk-faith-fellows-announced-to-

  help-deliver-millennium-development-goals/

  5 www.tonyblairoffice.org, 8 July 2009: http://www.tonyblairoffice.org/news/

  entry/tony-blair-announces-durham-university-

  partnership-as-faith-and-globalisati/

  6 www.tonyblairoffice.org, 8 October 2009:
http://www.tonyblairoffice.org

  /news/entry/tony-blair-attends-launch-

  of-transatlantic-healthcare-alliance-between-yale/

  7 Daily Telegraph, 19 December 2012: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics

  /6844763/Tony-Blair-earned-680000-

  for-his-foundation-for-50-hours-work.html

  8 http://www.thetablet.co.uk/article/4774 [page no longer available]

  9 Francis Beckett, Gordon Brown: Past, Present and Future (Haus Publishing, 2007)

  10 Daily Telegraph, 26 February 2012: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics

  /labour/9105663/Charles-Clarke-Thanks-

  to-religion-Ive-found-life-after-politics.html

  11 Authors’ interview with Martin Bright

  12 The Guardian, 25 January 2014: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/

  2014/jan/25/extremist-religion-wars-tony-blair

  13 Jewish Chronicle, 24 January 2014: http://www.thejc.com/comment-

  and-debate/columnists/115017/finding-nuance-

  religious-debate-i%E2%80%99ve-got-quite-a-job

  14 Daily Mail, 2 August 2014: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/

  article-2714316/Inside-Blair-s-lair-Five-spin-doctors-

  ministerial-red-box-town-hall-meetings-doughnuts-

  deals-dictators-After-THAT-party-Cherie-former-ex-

  PM-employee-reveals-really-happens.html

  15 Daily Telegraph, 13 February 2010: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/

  religion/7229874/Tony-Blairs-faith-charity-

  pays-six-figure-salaries-to-top-officials.html

  16 Arab News, 31 October 2014: http://www.arabnews.com/news/652761

  17 Daily Mail, 2 June 2013: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-

  2334560/The-ideology-Lee-Rigbys-murder-

  profound-dangerous-Why-dont-admit--Tony-

  Blair-launches-brave-assault-Muslim-extremism-

  Woolwich-attack.html

  18 Independent, 8 April 2009: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/

 

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