Public anger over the financial crisis is wrong and must not lead Britain to “hang bankers at the end of the street,” Tony Blair says today.
Tony Blair made millions of pounds last year but paid just a fraction of it in tax thanks to the complicated web of companies he has established.
The former prime minister’s secretive business empire declared an income of £12million.
But he was able to reduce his tax bill to just £315,000 after writing off almost £11million as ‘administrative expenses’ – a ‘surprisingly’ high figure, according to one accountant
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[H]e is also a paid adviser to U.S. investment bank JP Morgan and to Zurich International, a Swiss-based insurance company.
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Mr Blair’s earnings include lucrative after-dinner speaking, consultancies with banks and foreign governments, a series of deals with foreign companies, and the pension and other perks he enjoys as a former prime minister – including taxpayer-funded police protection. Critics also point out a large proportion of his income is derived from patrons in the U.S. and Middle East – a clear benefit of his alliance with George Bush for the invasion of Iraq.
NEW YORK, January 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- JPMorgan Chase announced
today that it has appointed former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in a
senior advisory capacity to the firm, effective immediately. Mr. Blair will
also join the company's International Council.
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today that it has appointed former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in a
senior advisory capacity to the firm, effective immediately. Mr. Blair will
also join the company's International Council.
/
"We're honored that Tony Blair has chosen to join JPMorgan Chase as a
senior advisor to our executive team and Board," said Jamie Dimon, Chairman
and CEO.
senior advisor to our executive team and Board," said Jamie Dimon, Chairman
and CEO.
A senior executive with the Libyan Investment Authority, the $70 billion fund used to invest the country's oil money abroad, said Mr Blair was one of three prominent western businessmen who regularly dealt with Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the former leader.
Saif al-Islam and his close aides oversaw the activities of the fund, and often directed its officials on where they should make its investments, he said.
The executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, said officials were told the "ideas" they were ordered to pursue came from Mr Blair as well as one other British businessman and a former American diplomat.
"Tony Blair's visits were purely lobby visits for banking deals with JP Morgan," he said.
He said that unlike some other deals - notably some investments run by the US bank Goldman Sachs - JP Morgan's had never turned "bad".
Mr Lawley-Wakelin claimed that Mr Blair had been ‘bought’ by JP Morgan, and that the US investment bank had profited from the Iraq War.