What do a Tory Peer, Selwyn Gummer (Lord Chadlington), David Sumner ( Sumner Group Holdings) and the Sanchez Perez family (drugs money, laundered through Gold mines) have in common?

It’s another company-saving a £50 million PPE contract shaggy dog story

Connections, connections

What a start to the story

“A bulletproof truck trundled down the road in downtown Lima, guarded by 18 policeman
They were wearing body armour & wielding high velocity rifles

No-one was taking any chances
This was a Special delivery for Peruvian Prosecutor for an anti drug trial
That was in 2011, the same year that Lord Chadlington’s daughter got married in Chadlington to Henry Allsopp.

Who was there?
Yes Kirstie Allsopp of Location, location, location and all this Covid nonsense fame) is his sister

Camilla, his Godmother

Jeremy Hunt

Cameron
Well. Come on. Lord Chadlington had been chair of the local Witney Conservative Association. It’s only fair.

Hang on. Julian Wheatland, Director of SCL Group/ Cambridge Analytica had also been chair of Witney Conservative Association...and campaigned for his mate Cameron
Are we sure Julian Wheatland and his side kick Alexander Nix were not there too @JolyonMaugham ?

I mean. They move in the same North Oxford circles.
Anyway.

Back to
-the Cotswold connection,

-Sumner Group Holdings with a history of financial crashes and

-that pesky Sanchez Paredes / Perez family with those lovely gold mines allegedly handy for laundering drug money.
What’s that got to do with Lord Chadlington?

Well his firm, GPW (he was chairman & Director) was asked by David Sumner to produce a business intelligence report on the risks of Sumner Group Holdings Ltd doing business with the Sanchez Peredes/ Perez family.
It concluded that although Orlando Sanchez Peredes had not been not convicted of any money laundering crimes, nor appear on any law enforcement sanctions list he WAS listed as a “special interest person” by the Dow Jones register of business risk data..and was currently on trial
4 members of the same family also under investigation for drugs/ money laundering through the gold mines offences.

So SGH ran a mile, surely?

Nope
They bought into the mines, paying Orlando Sanchez Perez and his family a shedload of money.

Then floated SGH on the stock market
They had already paid £10 million to the Sanchez family as a down payment with a £32 million still to pay.

Someone with some sense in SGH decided that continuing to do business with the Sanchez family still on trial, was too big a risk, waving goodbye to the £10 million.
Naturally, the newly SGH recruited shareholders were not too happy and sued them.

Knowing all this Lord Chadlington wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole, would he?

Nope.

He ended up the company Chairman.
So whilst SGH mining company ran into trouble with it shareholder, the public money purse this Government seems to use to line the coffers of its mates sprang to the rescue with 2 PPE contract (£23.8 mill + £26.1 mill) awarded to another SGH subsidiary.
Where’s the problem between mates with a company with £376k debt, after all?

I mean, that’s what mates and that VIP line to success are for, surely ?
Interesting colleagues on the Sumner board.

https://t.co/qcJVOm2Lfp
That 28 Esplanade, St Helier, Jersey registered address rings a bell with me.

Does it you @Turloughc ?
The full SGH/ Lord Chadlington/ Sanchez Peredes story is here

https://t.co/GQoj8P0HpS

More from Economy

One of the hardest problems post-pandemic will be how to revive so-called "left behind" places.

Post-industrial towns, run-down suburbs, coastal communities - these places were already struggling before the crisis and have fared worst in the last year.

What should we do?

Today, @ukonward sets out the beginning of a plan to repair our social fabric. It follows our extensive research over the last year, expertly chaired by @jamesosh, and funded by @jrf_uk, @Shelter and @peoplesbiz.

https://t.co/d3T5uPwG9N


Before I get into recommendations, some findings from previous Onward research.

In 2018, we found 71% of people believe "community has declined in my lifetime"

In 2019, we found 65% would rather live in “a society that focuses on giving people more security” vs 35% for freedom


This was the basis for our identification of 'Workington Man' as the archetypal swing voter in 2019, and led us to predict (correctly) that large numbers of Red Wall seats could fall. A key driver was a desire for security, belonging and pride in place.


There is also a key regional dimension to this. We also tested people's affinity with the UK's direction of travel, across both cultural and economic dimensions - revealing the extraordinary spread below: London vs. the Rest.
https://t.co/HrorW4xaLp

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