Puzzle as loss-making firm donates to Reform UK

Martin Shipton

Reform UK watchers have been puzzled by a newly disclosed donation to the party of £50,000 by a company whose accounts are overdue and which most recently reported a trading loss of more than £2.4m.

R20 Advisory Ltd has no website, no phone number and little public profile.

It was founded in 2002 by property tycoon Robert Tchenguiz “to advise family trusts on commercial strategies and investments.” Executive chairman Tchenguiz is one of only two directors of the firm — the other is a lawyer.

Mr Tchenguiz is now a British citizen but came to the UK as a migrant after the Iranian revolution in 1979.

Cardiff Bay

As well as owning many other properties, his portfolio includes the controversial Celestia development in Cardiff Bay, which was built with defective cladding and has been the subject of a long-running dispute between apartment owners and the construction firm that built it.

Altogether, Companies House records show that Mr Tchenguiz has been a director of as many as 320 companies, most of which are now dissolved.

R20 Advisory should have filed accounts for the year ending May 2024 by the end of May 2025, but has not done so – a criminal offence.

Keystone Law told the Democracy For Sale substack written by the Irish journalist Peter Geoghegan: “There isn’t really any leeway in whether accounts have been filed late or not, and as soon as a company is late with its accounts, the clock starts ticking for the directors on the risk of a possible criminal prosecution.”

Geoghegan added: “Despite this, Reform happily accepted £50,000 from R20 Advisory. The company itself has made millions in losses in recent years and is ultimately controlled by Dunain Holdings Limited, a firm registered in the British Virgin Islands. The government has already signalled that its forthcoming Elections Bill will tighten rules on donations from loss-making companies — making contributions like this one a potential flashpoint.”

Eventful

Mr Tchenguiz has had an eventful career as a property magnate, with many ups and downs.

In October 2008, under pressure from Iceland’s Kaupthing Bank, which had backed many of his investments, he was forced to sell off holdings in M&B, Sainsbury’s, SCi Entertainment and other businesses, incurring substantial losses estimated at over £800m.

In 2009, Kaupthing announced it was suing Oscatello Investments, a British Virgin Islands-based holding company controlled by Mr Tchenguiz, in relation to an unpaid overdraft of £643m. Later that year Kaupthing followed up with a £180m claim against Mr Tchenguiz for proceeds from the sale of Somerfield, eventually settled in 2010 with the Tchenguiz Discretionary Trust surrendering control of £137m to Kaupthing’s administrators.

Meanwhile, in 2009, Tchenguiz’s Globe Pub Company had faced administration after defaulting on a loan payment; the chain’s 421 outlets were bought from the receivers by Heineken.

Arrested

In the wake of the collapse of Kaupthing Bank, Robert Tchenguiz was suspected of fraudulent dealings and was arrested in a dawn raid in 2011; however, the investigation ended in 2012 with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) citing “insufficient evidence”, and no indictment was ever brought. In fact, Mr Tchenguiz lost millions of pounds in Kaupthing’s collapse.

Mr Tchenguiz sued the SFO for false imprisonment and damages to his businesses. Due to mishandling of the inquiry, the court had already ordered the SFO to pay 80% of Mr Tchenguiz’s legal expenses in the matter.

In 2014 the SFO settled with Tchenguiz for £1.5m.

In July 2018, Robert Tchenguiz was said by a High Court judge to have lied regarding a €2 billion Santander Bank deal in a dispute involving Edgeworth Capital, a Tchenguiz-owned Luxembourg-registered company, and Aabar Investments, an Abu Dhabi investment business.[40] Finding in favour of Aabar, the judge said Tchenguiz was “prepared to say whatever he thought would assist Edgeworth’s case, without any regard for its truth.”

In light of the company’s losses, we asked Reform UK to comment on R20 Advisory’s £50k donation.

A spokesperson for Reform said: “Reform UK refers you to the PPERA Act 2020 which sets out the rules for donations made to political parties.”

No such Act was passed in 2020.

However, the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act (PPERA) was passed in 2000.

In terms of corporate donations, the Act’s definition of permissible donors includes companies that are registered under the Companies Act 2006, incorporated within the UK, and carry on business in the UK.