Ashcroft bank accused of diverting £5m aid for poor of Belize to its own coffers

Conservative Party deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft is facing claims that a bank he controls in Belize ‘diverted’ £5million intended to help the country’s poor to its own coffers. The money was a gift from Venezuela to the tiny Central American nation, where the controversial Tory donor’s multi-million business empire is based. According to the Belize government, half of it arrived but the rest vanished. It was later revealed that the funds had been routed, via London, to the Belize Bank Limited, (BBL) owned by one of Lord Ashcroft’s holding companies. Powerful: Lord Ashcroft with his wife Suzie at a New York reception The bank says it is keeping the £5million because, it argues, it is repayment of a debt guaranteed by the impoverished country’s former prime minister, Said Musa. But the current administration claims Mr Musa... [read full story]