Tory donor’s 'link' to sanctioned oligarch’s secret London property

Lubov Chernukhin, nee Golubeva

A major Conservative Party donor was listed as a director of a company secretly owned by a Russian oligarch close to President Putin.

The BBC has seen a document dated 2006 and signed "Lubov Golubeva", the maiden name of Lubov Chernukhin, a Tory donor.

Mrs Chernukhin says she "does not recall consenting in writing" to being a director of Suleiman Kerimov's firm.

Mr Kerimov, now sanctioned, previously denied any connection with Mrs Chernukhin.

Papers seen by the BBC appear to show that Mrs Chernukhin, then Lubov Golubeva, was appointed a director of offshore company Radlett Estates Limited, in 2005 - following its acquisition of a substantial property, 1 Radlett Place, in north London.

Another firm - Swiru Holding AG - was the sole shareholder of Radlett Estates. The directors of Radlett Estates were Swiss businessman Alexander Studhalter and Suleiman Kerimov's nephew, Nariman Gadzhiev.

Mr Studhalter was accused in a French court of being a so-called "straw man", or proxy, for Mr Kerimov - involved in hiding the oligarch's wealth.

Radlett Estates had planned to demolish the building and construct a new 3,500 sq-ft (325 sq-m) home. According to architects' plans, there was to be a cinema, a health spa and gym, indoor swimming pool, a map room, six bedrooms and a "6 car motorised garage and large staff quarters".

Mr Kerimov and his wife were not listed as directors of Radlett Estates and their names were not on the planning documents seen by the BBC. But one designer's website identified the clients as "Mr and Mrs K".

The signature "Lubov Golubeva" appears on a Radlett Estates board meeting document from 2006. It records her resignation from the company.

Radlett Estates Ltd 2006 document showing "Lubov Golubeva" signature

In 2007, Ms Golubeva married Vladimir Chernukhin - a multimillionaire businessman who had served under President Putin as a junior minister, but later fled Russia.

The same year, she started giving money to the Conservative Party - initially in £5,000 donations under her maiden name. As time went on, the donations - in her married name - became much bigger. She would end up becoming one of the Tory party's most influential donors - having given more than £2.1m.

The discovery of the evidence suggesting a business connection between Mrs Chernukhin and Mr Kerimov follows questions in Parliament about her and her links to Russia. This was despite Mrs Chernukhin's condemnation of "Russian military aggression in Ukraine" where she called for "the strongest possible sanctions against Putin's regime and its enablers".

Earlier this month, the BBC - as part of the Pandora Papers Russia project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and global partners - revealed how Suleiman Kerimov has been hiding his wealth.

Vladimir Chernukhin

Lubov Chernukhin's husband Vladimir was in the Russian government between 2000 and 2002. He was then appointed chairman of a state bank by Mr Putin, but left Russia after being dismissed by the president in 2004.

But in a 2018 court case, his wife confirmed that Mr Chernukhin had maintained "excellent" relationships with "prominent members of the Russian establishment".

Mr Chernukhin said he arrived in the UK with a fortune of $300m (£230m) and started building a "real estate empire".

Both he and his wife are now UK citizens - which means she is entitled to donate to a political party. In February, she was reported to be a member of a small "advisory board" of major donors with access to senior party members, including the prime minister.

In 2019, she paid £135,000 to attend a ladies' night dinner attended by then-Prime Minister Theresa May, and then-Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss, who is now foreign secretary with responsibility for sanctions against Russia.

In 2020, the BBC revealed how Mr Chernukhin had been secretly funded with $8m by a company linked to Mr Kerimov four years previously - before Mr Kerimov was first sanctioned by the US.

At that time, her lawyers said "Mrs Chernukhin has never received money deriving from Mr Kerimov or any company related to him" and her "donations to the Conservative Party have never been tainted by Kremlin or any other influence".

Lawyers for Mr Kerimov said he had had "no dealings whatsoever" with Mrs Chernukhin.

Suleiman Kerimov

Suleiman Kerimov was among a dozen billionaires called to stand alongside President Putin as Russia's tanks rolled into Ukraine in February. The businessman has been estimated to be worth more than $14bn.

Mr Kerimov has been subject to US sanctions since 2018 - and since March by the EU and UK. The EU described him as "a member of the inner circle of oligarchs" close to Mr Putin.

In 2017, Mr Kerimov was arrested in France over his alleged role in laundering the proceeds of tax evasion. The case related to French properties which investigators believed were owned by Mr Kerimov - his ownership hidden by Alexander Studhalter acting as a proxy for the oligarch.

Mr Studhalter denies being the "straw man" for Mr Kerimov and says he was the real owner of the properties through a Swiss company called Swiru Holding AG.

But - according to secret French Court of Appeal records seen by the BBC - bank documents showed Mr Studhalter was holding shares in Swiru Holding on behalf of Mr Kerimov and his nephew, Nariman Gadzhiev.

Mr Kerimov's French lawyers said: "After several years of investigation, no charges were brought against our client."

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Mr Kerimov and Mr Studhalter did not respond to our questions about the ownership of 1 Radlett Place, which was sold to another offshore company in 2012 for £36.5m.

Mr and Mrs Chernukhin's lawyers said "Mrs Chernukhin has never been a director of Radlett". She had, they said, been approached in relation to the "Radlett Project" in her capacity as a director of another business called Capital Construction Development Limited - a company then owned by her husband - and "asked to submit a pitch". The project did not proceed, they said.

The BBC has seen conflicting evidence of Mrs Chernukhin's relationship with Radlett Estates Limited.

An email in December 2009 quoted a representative of Swiru Holding - the sole shareholder of Radlett Estates - as saying they could not find "any evidence" in their files that "Mr or Ms Golubov [sic] have been appointedd [sic], nor any Resolutions or Resignation/Acceptance letters."

And documents show representatives of Swiru repeatedly submitted corporate documents to Radlett's registered agent - its administrator in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) - which contained no mention of Lubov Golubeva.

But a number of leaked registers of directors - including from three of the agent's offices in Switzerland, the BVI and Cyprus - show Mrs Chernukhin, then Lubov Golubeva, listed as a director.

Radlett Estates Ltd document showing Ms Lubov Golubeva listed as a director

Asked about those documents, and the one showing Lubov Golubeva's resignation in 2006, lawyers for the Chernukhins said "Mrs Chernukhin does not recall consenting in writing to being a director of Radlett Estates Limited" and questioned whether the documents were "forgeries and/or may have been manipulated".

Anti-money laundering expert Tom Keatinge at the think tank Rusi, told us it was possible the signature was a forgery - but unlikely.

"Documents show she was present at a meeting where her continued directorship was being discussed. And indeed at that meeting she resigned as a director so I think it stretches the imagination to suggest her identity was stolen."

Rachel Davies of Transparency International says the BBCs investigation underlines why the system of political donations has to be more transparent.

"Any politician or political party ought to have a clear understanding of the nature of their benefactor. That means conducting due diligence over those who sponsor their activities, not just looking at whether the funds they receive are lawful but ensuring they're exercising good judgement in receiving them in the first place."

A Conservative Party spokesperson said, "if a British citizen is able to vote in an election for a political party, they also have the democratic right to donate to a political party. All donations are properly and transparently declared to the Electoral Commission, published by them, and comply fully with the law."

Additional reporting by Will Dahlgreen