Meursault
02-21-2006, 11:18 PM
Farid Hamawi takes up the story of Lord Levy
Lord Levy ("Michael" or "Mike" to his wife and tennis partners) is probably the most important fundraiser for the Labour Party and is now Tony Blair's unofficial "envoy" to the Middle East. Levy met Blair at a dinner party, 11 years ago, back in 1994 held by Gideon Meir, a senior Israeli diplomat, and shortly thereafter became his tennis partner. Levy was in charge of donations to the 'private trust' which funded Tony Blair's office before the 1997 election (which reached £7 million), and is now the chief fundraiser for the 'high value' donors account at the Labour Party, along with his deputy Amanda Delew (who worked with him at Jewish Care). He is reported to have raised £12 million for the 'high value' fund before the 1997 election, becoming known as 'Mr Cashpoint'.
Peerage bestowed
Soon after the 1997 election he was given a peerage. Levy used to work with Dr. Henry Drucker, whose company Oxford Philanthropic was brought in by the Labour Party to advise on getting large corporate donations, but they fell out over Drucker's description of Labour's 'blind trust' funds as 'evil' (the trusts have since all been closed down). At one meeting with Levy in his mansion - Chase House in Totteridge, Barnet in Middlesex, it is alleged that Levy apologised to Drucker for not offering him a cup of coffee, but explained 'You'll have to do without as none of the servants are about and I don't know how to work the machine myself.'
Strange tax returns
Levy founded Magnet Records in 1972 with help from the late Maurice Oberstein, Head of CBS Records,(Oberstein died of leukaemia in 2001, aged 72) and made millions from artists such as Alvin Stardust, Chris Rea, Dollar, Darts and Bad Manners. At one point Magnet was selling 8% of all records sold in the UK. Some former employees of Magnet have complained that Levy was a manic bully who shouted at staff and threw ashtrays around. He sold Magnet to Warner Brothers in 1988 for £10 million and later set up another record company called M&G (named after himself and his wife Gilda), where he paid himself a salary of £308,657. He sold M&G in 1997.
Although a multi-millionaire, it is alleged, like so many of Britain's wealthy elite who can pay for good tax "advice", that he only paid £5,000 in tax in 1998-9 and less than £10,000 in 1997-8 as he said he "wasn't working". Michael Levy runs a private company called Wireart, an investment company which was based in an overseas tax haven until 1997. Wireart paid him £160,000 (plus £50,000 expenses) for work as a management consultant in 1998-9 at the time he wasn't working. Since 1992 he has been Chairman of Jewish Care, one of the UK's biggest charities (he was asked to join by the Tory minister Lord Young), raising as much as £60 million.
Spivs r'us
Blair's political rival, his very own Chancellor, Gordon Brown, opined that it was "indefensible that a very wealthy few are allowed to work or live in the UK without making a fair contribution through taxation". Perhaps Brown had an inkling about Levy's little dirty tax avoidance schemes.
Levy is known to have used offshore trusts in the past and his companies had links with one or more tax havens until 1997. But at around the time of the then general election he moved the Michael Levy Acquisitions Trust, an offshore trust based in Guernsey, back to the UK.
Palatial homes
Chase House, Levy's home in Totteridge (NE20), has 5 large bedrooms, 3 sitting rooms, a tennis court, swimming pool, a games room, palm trees, a large garage for his chauffeur-driven Jaguar and Bentley and a separate annexe for his servants. He spent £1.3 million refurbishing the house after he bought it in 1997 for £1.3 (his previous house was sold for £3.4 million). The rooms are lined with marble, granite and limestone.
Israel connections
Although born in Hackney, east London, Levy also owns a villa in Herzliya Pituah, an exclusive suburb of Tel Aviv in Israel, which he bought after selling another villa nearby for £4 million. He has acted as a fundraiser for Ehud Barak, the Israeli Prime Minister, and maintains a close relationship with him. His son Daniel worked for the Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, to whom Levy contributed campaign funds. Both his children live in Israel.
His role as unofficial envoy for the Middle East took him to 8 different countries in 1999, staying in British Embassies, including Syria, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, Israel, Egypt and Lebanon (where he was accused by the Lebanese Government of bringing them the Israeli position and the British Ambassador had to issue a statement to try and calm the situation down). He was also provided with cars, drivers and staff support. The Embassy in Amman, Jordan, arranged a lunch for him to meet Jordanian politicians.
Every taxpayer and worker in Britain should be worried about New Labour's involvement in backing the madman Bush and should be aware of the facts of the matter. This is a war for keeping Israel secure and nothing to do with getting rid of Saddam Hussein. God bless the men and women who wear British Army uniform and may God speed them, every one of them, back safely to Britain. It is not Britain's War!
http://www.bnp.org.uk/articles/levy_blair.htm
Not the most recent of articles, but I've only just come across it and, being a generous guy and all that, I just couldn't resist sharing.
Lord Levy ("Michael" or "Mike" to his wife and tennis partners) is probably the most important fundraiser for the Labour Party and is now Tony Blair's unofficial "envoy" to the Middle East. Levy met Blair at a dinner party, 11 years ago, back in 1994 held by Gideon Meir, a senior Israeli diplomat, and shortly thereafter became his tennis partner. Levy was in charge of donations to the 'private trust' which funded Tony Blair's office before the 1997 election (which reached £7 million), and is now the chief fundraiser for the 'high value' donors account at the Labour Party, along with his deputy Amanda Delew (who worked with him at Jewish Care). He is reported to have raised £12 million for the 'high value' fund before the 1997 election, becoming known as 'Mr Cashpoint'.
Peerage bestowed
Soon after the 1997 election he was given a peerage. Levy used to work with Dr. Henry Drucker, whose company Oxford Philanthropic was brought in by the Labour Party to advise on getting large corporate donations, but they fell out over Drucker's description of Labour's 'blind trust' funds as 'evil' (the trusts have since all been closed down). At one meeting with Levy in his mansion - Chase House in Totteridge, Barnet in Middlesex, it is alleged that Levy apologised to Drucker for not offering him a cup of coffee, but explained 'You'll have to do without as none of the servants are about and I don't know how to work the machine myself.'
Strange tax returns
Levy founded Magnet Records in 1972 with help from the late Maurice Oberstein, Head of CBS Records,(Oberstein died of leukaemia in 2001, aged 72) and made millions from artists such as Alvin Stardust, Chris Rea, Dollar, Darts and Bad Manners. At one point Magnet was selling 8% of all records sold in the UK. Some former employees of Magnet have complained that Levy was a manic bully who shouted at staff and threw ashtrays around. He sold Magnet to Warner Brothers in 1988 for £10 million and later set up another record company called M&G (named after himself and his wife Gilda), where he paid himself a salary of £308,657. He sold M&G in 1997.
Although a multi-millionaire, it is alleged, like so many of Britain's wealthy elite who can pay for good tax "advice", that he only paid £5,000 in tax in 1998-9 and less than £10,000 in 1997-8 as he said he "wasn't working". Michael Levy runs a private company called Wireart, an investment company which was based in an overseas tax haven until 1997. Wireart paid him £160,000 (plus £50,000 expenses) for work as a management consultant in 1998-9 at the time he wasn't working. Since 1992 he has been Chairman of Jewish Care, one of the UK's biggest charities (he was asked to join by the Tory minister Lord Young), raising as much as £60 million.
Spivs r'us
Blair's political rival, his very own Chancellor, Gordon Brown, opined that it was "indefensible that a very wealthy few are allowed to work or live in the UK without making a fair contribution through taxation". Perhaps Brown had an inkling about Levy's little dirty tax avoidance schemes.
Levy is known to have used offshore trusts in the past and his companies had links with one or more tax havens until 1997. But at around the time of the then general election he moved the Michael Levy Acquisitions Trust, an offshore trust based in Guernsey, back to the UK.
Palatial homes
Chase House, Levy's home in Totteridge (NE20), has 5 large bedrooms, 3 sitting rooms, a tennis court, swimming pool, a games room, palm trees, a large garage for his chauffeur-driven Jaguar and Bentley and a separate annexe for his servants. He spent £1.3 million refurbishing the house after he bought it in 1997 for £1.3 (his previous house was sold for £3.4 million). The rooms are lined with marble, granite and limestone.
Israel connections
Although born in Hackney, east London, Levy also owns a villa in Herzliya Pituah, an exclusive suburb of Tel Aviv in Israel, which he bought after selling another villa nearby for £4 million. He has acted as a fundraiser for Ehud Barak, the Israeli Prime Minister, and maintains a close relationship with him. His son Daniel worked for the Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, to whom Levy contributed campaign funds. Both his children live in Israel.
His role as unofficial envoy for the Middle East took him to 8 different countries in 1999, staying in British Embassies, including Syria, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, Israel, Egypt and Lebanon (where he was accused by the Lebanese Government of bringing them the Israeli position and the British Ambassador had to issue a statement to try and calm the situation down). He was also provided with cars, drivers and staff support. The Embassy in Amman, Jordan, arranged a lunch for him to meet Jordanian politicians.
Every taxpayer and worker in Britain should be worried about New Labour's involvement in backing the madman Bush and should be aware of the facts of the matter. This is a war for keeping Israel secure and nothing to do with getting rid of Saddam Hussein. God bless the men and women who wear British Army uniform and may God speed them, every one of them, back safely to Britain. It is not Britain's War!
http://www.bnp.org.uk/articles/levy_blair.htm
Not the most recent of articles, but I've only just come across it and, being a generous guy and all that, I just couldn't resist sharing.