Michael Brown (Liberal Democrats donor)
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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 was the largest donor that political party had ever had, giving ten times more than anything the party had received before.[1]
[edit] Electoral Commission on donation to Liberal Democrat party
Because he was residing in Majorca, Spain, at the time of the donation, and was not registered to vote in the United Kingdom, Michael Brown 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 had never traded in bonds.[2] The Electoral Commission issued a statement stating: "The Electoral Commission has previously made clear its view that it was reasonable for the Liberal Democrats - based on the information available to them at the time - to regard the donations they received from 5th Avenue Partners Ltd in 2005, totaling just over £2.4m, as permissible. It remains the Commissions view that the Liberal Democrats acted in good faith at that time, and the Commission is not re-opening the question of whether the party or its officers failed to carry out sufficient checks into the permissibility of the donations. Nevertheless, we have always said that if any additional information that has a bearing on the permissibility of the donations comes to light, we would consider the matter further. It is not clear to the Commission that 5th Avenue Partners Ltd was carrying on business in the UK at the time the donations were made. If not, then the donations were impermissible."[3]
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