Michael Brown (Liberal Democrats donor)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.

Michael Robert Alexander Brown (born 19 April, 1966) is a Scottish businessman, who between 10 February and 30 March 2005 donated £2.4 million to the British Liberal Democrats. He is the largest donor that political party has ever had, giving ten times more than anything the party had received before.^[1]

On 25 September 2006 he was convicted to serve 2 years in prison for perjury and obtaining a passport by deception.^[2] He is also the subject of an international money-laundering investigation by City of London Police and is facing a civil action by HSBC.

Because he was residing in Majorca, Spain, at the time of the donation, and was not registered to vote in the United Kingdom, he used a company name as the official legal donor. In October 2006 the High Court in London ruled that the company which Brown used to donate the money to the Liberal Democrats, 5th Avenue Partners, was fraudulent and had never traded.^[3] Consequently the Electoral Commission is considering requiring the Liberal Democrats to repay the money. The party has no contingency fund to make such a repayment, and ordinary members would be liable to pay. This could put the party in financial difficulties during the period leading to the Scottish Parliament general election in 2007.^[4]

[edit] References