Mandelson Named in Spy Files on Oligarch

Mandelson named in spy files on oligarch

By Adrian Gatton and Robert Mendick

24 October 2008

Evening Standard (London)

BUSINESS secretary Lord Mandelson's relationship with the Russian oligarch at the centre of the "yachtgate" scandal is detailed in secret government intelligence files, the Evening Standard can reveal.

A source has told the Standard that Lord Mandelson's name features repeatedly in files held on Oleg Deripaska. The revelation will strengthen demands for Lord Mandelson to disclose all meetings and dealings with Mr Deripaska, Russia's richest man.

The references to Lord Mandelson appear in files contained on a massive, covert joint intelligence database called Scope. Scope allows MI5, MI6, GCHQ and the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre to communicate with each other more quickly and securely than before. It enables the agencies to call up the latest intelligence within 15 minutes.

A source told the Standard: "Peter Mandelson appears in the Scope database. His name appears repeatedly in connection with the business dealings of Oleg Deripaska."

There is no suggestion that there is a file specifically devoted to Lord Mandelson nor that he has acted improperly in meeting Mr Deripaska. UK intelligence agencies opened a file on Mr Deripaska following a series of claims over his alleged links to organised crime in Russia. US authorities are also said to be concerned about Mr Deripaska's dealings.

The oligarch is banned from entering the US. At the request of the FBi in 2006, the US authorities revoked his visa and, despite lobbying, Mr Deripaska has failed to get it reinstated.

Mr Deripaska has never been convicted of any crime and denies all wrongdoing including any ties to organised crime. He insists his US ban is purely a bureaucratic error. Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker, who has tabled questions in the Commons asking if the British authorities were aware of US concerns when issuing Mr Deripaska a visa, said today: "There are now a series of questions that need answering over Lord Mandelson's relationship with Mr Deripaska."

It emerged today that Lord Mandelson and Mr Deripaska have known each other since at least 2004 - two years earlier than previously thought - when the two men were spotted dining in Moscow. Lord Mandelson had just been appointed a European Commissioner but had yet to take up the post. Lord Mandelson, appointed Business Secretary this month, has always insisted there was no conflict of interest in his friendship with Mr Deripaska. As European trade commissioner, he made decisions that may have had a direct impact on Mr Deripaska's business dealings, mainly in aluminium in which he made his fortune.

This week hedge fund manager Nat Rothschild, a friend of both Lord Mandelson and Mr Deripaska, wrote a letter to The Times suggesting Tory shadow chancellor George Osborne had attempted to "solicit a donation" from the oligarch during a meeting on the Russian's yacht, moored off Corfu.

The result was to turn attention to Mr Osborne's dealings with Mr Deripaska. Mr Rothschild, the millionaire financier and scion of the Rothschild banking dynasty, has been working strategically since 2005 to help Mr Deripaska's aluminium company Basic Element get a listing on a major stock exchange.

Mr Deripaska is convinced he is being smeared by Russian rivals. A source said: "There are a lot things flying around to blacken Mr Deripaska's name. Claims about security service files cannot be proved one way or the other."

No one at the business department was available for comment.

Follow-ups published here:

Mandelson named 'repeatedly' in spy files linking him to Russian oligarch Daily Mail 24 October 2008;

Lord Mandelson admits public were misled over relationship with Russian oligarch Daily Telegraph 25 October 2005

The Money Programme: Dirty Little Secrets

Dirty Little Secrets: Four spy stories from the business world
1 February 2008
The Money Programme
on BBC2

The temptation to gain an illegal advantage on your business competitors has never been higher. Companies now routinely employ private detectives to find out just what their competitors are up to.

In the first of a new series, the Money Programme's Max Flint lifts the lid on a murky world of phone taps, secret filming, break-ins and deception - all in search of a profit.

Last year Formula 1 team, McLaren, was fined £50 million after it received details of a rival car's design.

The Money Programme discovers that far from the glamour of F1, many other businesses are also relying on dirty tricks to give them that extra advantage. The programme investigates competitive spying in, of all businesses, the conservatory industry. And it explores in depth how a waste tycoon Adrian Kirby ordered corrupt London-based private detective firm Active Investigation Service (AIS) to bug the phones and hack into the emails of opponents.

Dirty Little Secrets is an Old Street Films production for BBC2 Money Programme.

Producer: Adrian Gatton
Director: Rob Lemkin
Executive Editor: Clive Edwards

The Money Programme: Private Equity

The AA: Rescue or Wrong Turn?

8 June 2007

The Money Programme

on BBC Two

As private equity firms set their sights on bigger and bigger targets - including high-street favourites like Boots - the Money Programme looks at the City's new whizz kids and one of the most controversial business practices of recent times. The film examines the buy-out of the Automobile Association (AA) and asks whether private equity investors are saving or savaging this national institution.

Read an article about the programme here. The AA: Rescue or Wrong Turn? is an Old Street Films production for The Money Programme.

Co-Producer: Adrian Gatton

Producer/Director: Rob Lemkin
Executive Producer: Clive Edwards

The Aristo, a Workers' Revolt and the Missing Millions

The Aristo, a Workers' Revolt and the Missing Millions

By Keith Dovkants and Adrian Gatton

19 February 2006

Evening Standard (London)

The free-spending British heir to an ancient title is under investigation in Germany over a company he acquired

To his many friends on the polo circuit, the Hon Rhodri Philipps is the consummate owner-player. His team, Prodigal, often includes leading professional Jack Kidd, whose sister Jodie, the model, is an enthusiastic supporter. Philipps, heir to an ancient title and said to be a descendant of Richard the Lionheart, plays with attacking verve and, win or lose, is always dazzlingly generous with his hospitality.

Indeed, his free-spending has been noted far from the polo field. In the German town of Nuremberg a large number of unemployed workers have followed Philipps’s exploits very closely. There was the polo tournament on snow at Klosters last year, where Philipps fielded his team against world-class players, including Kidd. Jodie presented the trophy. Then there were the celebrity matches at Cowdray Park where Philipps played with some of polo’s stars including his friend Lucas White, who inherited £70 million from his father, the legendary entrepreneur Lord (Gordon) White. Led by Philipps, Prodigal won the Daniele de Winter cup. Lucas’s wife, Normandie Keith, was among the first to offer her congratulations.

Alas, Philipps’s sporting successes prompted a quite different reaction in Nuremberg. It was here, not so long ago, that a group of angry men stormed Philipps’s office, apparently intent on a confrontation. Only when the police arrived and Philipps was able to escape the scene in his car was calm restored.

Those who know him as the debonair 40-year-old heir to Viscount St Davids and the title Baron Strange de Knokyn (which dates from 1299) might be perplexed by the Nuremberg incident. Philipps is a popular figure in London, a regular at the Walbrook Club in the City and frequent patron of some of the capital’s finest restaurants and shops. James Purdey and Sons, the celebrated gun- maker in Mayfair, has done several thousand pounds worth of business with him recently His Wikipedia entry lists his hobbies as “polo, exclusive shopping”.

This has also been noted in Nuremberg. Workers at the old-established construction company Hans Brochier, which was taken over in a deal done by Philipps, claim his lavish spending habits have been financed by money that was meant to benefit them.

It seems an extraordinary thing to allege about a member of one of Britain’s noble families …

For full article please visit the Evening Standard online archive.

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Sex in the 90s: Lap Dance War

Sex in the 90s: Lap Dance War
28 June 2006
Channel 4 Television

Naked spies.
Private eyes.
Council-imposed underpants.

A romp through the dirty war to control American-style striptease in Britain.

The 1990s saw the rise of lap dancing in Britain. Giant corporations opened strip clubs up and down the country, fundamentally changing British attitudes to sex. Lap Dance War tells the behind-the-scenes story of how lap dancing conquered Britain. It reveals the men behind the industry - like Michael J Peter, Peter Stringfellow and Spearmint Rhino's John Gray - and their power struggles to dominate the scene. It is the story of backroom deals, lapdancing spies, and private detectives who re-wrote Britain's rulebook for selling sex forever.

The programme features interviews with Michael J Peter, Peter Stringfellow, Mark Young and David Fierstone. The documentary also includes an interview with Adrian Gatton about his investigations into the lap-dancing wars (follow the links for some of the stories Spearmint Rhino lap-dancing clubs' boss is convicted fraudster, Tale of the Rhino, A gangland killing, lap dancers who are said to sell sex and the criminal past of the man behind the Spearmint Rhino empire, Spearmint Rhino dances to £1.75m.

Consultant: Adrian Gatton
Producer: Pete Sawyer
Director: David Monaghan

Lap Dance War is a film by DMP. Read a transcript of Lap Dance War here.


Adrian Gatton interviewed about the lap-dancing wars that hit London after the arrival of Spearmint Rhino.