MPs Expenses affair - deep skullduggery afoot

[David Guyatt]

On Friday last the Wall Street Journal (pasted in below) carried a short story identifying the middle-man who pawned the Parliamentary CD’s containing all MP’s expenses claims over the last 5 years. These CD’s had been hawked around to a number of UK newspapers at a fee of over £300,000 before the Daily Torygraph took up the offer.

Those selling the CD’s didn’t wish for a Sunday newspaper to cary the story (according a Sunday Times story published today) because they wanted the story to drip out everyday - not just in one single bast - thus heightening the damage done. This is an odd requirement for anyone simply engaged in making a fistful of money and clearly indicates that causing sustained damage was the principal agenda.
[URL="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124241468014524689.html"]
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124241468014524689.html[/URL]

By AARON O. PATRICK

In the hyper-competitive world of Fleet Street, it is a burning question: how did the Daily Telegraph newspaper obtain sensitive information on politicians' expenses that have been secret for years.

The answer: an ex-British army officer who runs a security company from a small London office, John Wick.

Earlier this year Mr. Wick approached the (London) Times offering to sell details of reimbursement claims by members of Parliament going back years, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Mr. Wick said he was representing the person who obtained the data, who wanted to be paid £250,000, according a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Wick asked for £50,000 for himself to help analyze the data, according to the person familiar with the matter. A spokeswoman for the Times declined to comment.

The Times is owned by News Corp., which also owns The Wall Street Journal.

The data was later obtained by the Daily Telegraph, which has not detailed how it came upon the information or responded to suggestions that it paid to acquire it. The Daily Telegraph declined to comment on whether it acquired the data from Mr. Wick.

On Friday a London-based public relations consultant working for Mr. Wick, Henry Gewanter, said he would give The Wall Street Journal access to the reimbursement information if the Journal agreed not to identify Mr. Wick as its source. Mr. Gewanter said he was making the same offer to British newspapers and expected to complete the arrangement early next week.

"We trying to make some original source material available for research purposes," he said. "I believe in a free press."

Mr. Wick did not return phone calls.

According to corporate records, Mr. Wick is a 60-year-old director of International Security Solutions Ltd. The company's Web site says it advises the insurance industry about risk, gathers business intelligence and does investigations.

Mr. Wick served in Britain's elite Special Air Service regiment and reached the rank of major, according to Brian Goswell, a retired businessman who says he was chairman of two companies established by Mr. Wick. Sir Brian says the two companies provided securities services but were liquidated after getting into financial strife.

"He's a thoroughly agreeable man," Sir Brian said. "I haven't seen him for some time."

(my bolding)

How curious then that the WSJ, who clearly have looked at the website of John Wick's International Security Solutions Limited (ISSL), choose not to mention the glaring fact that their interviewee, Brian Goswell, is actually one of the principal company officers of ISSL:

http://www.isslimited.eu/about-us

ISSL
Corporate Risk Management

About Us

Sir Brian Goswell
Sir Brian has a wealth of experience, an exceptional reputation and as such is a highly respected figure in the City of London. Of particular note was Sir Brian's appointment as chairman of Brent Walker Plc by its bankers, whilst the company went through a difficult period of restructuring. ISSL and its client base therefore draw upon this superb source of expertise and professionalism.

John Wick
After retiring from the military, John Wick formed ISSL and has been fundamental to the development of its core disciplines. Melding together the two aspects of security and insurance has provided a unique offering to clients. He continues to develop new products and services to reflect the current challenges of the ISSL's customer base.

Intriguingly, ex-SAS Major, John Wick seems to be one of the fellow's chosen by the print media to interview about Somalian piratical activies (see: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/world/...wanted=all AND http://www2.canada.com/news/somali+pirat...id=1482779). One might also be inclined to take a squnt at Peter Preslan's post No. 34 on the Somali pirate story and the rumours going around that someone on the inside of London's Lloyds Insurance market seems to be selling sensitive information to the Somalian pirates when choosing their targets.

Selling confidential CD's about MPs expenses and selling confidential maritime insurance information so that pirates can cherry-pick the best targets, does not strike me as mutually exclusive activities. On the contrary they seem to be very similar business activities.

And guess what? John Wick and ISSL have a unique and close relationship with the Insurance market:

Whilst continuing with strong and well established ties to the insurance market, ISSL also works with governments, financial institutions and blue chip clients to provide risk management solutions in a bespoke and discreet manner.

See: http://www.isslimited.eu/history

Indeed, the Insurance market appears to be the principal skill of ISSL, judged by the company's website "Case studies" folder.

Meanwhile, Sir Brian Goswell is listed in the Parliamentary Members Register of Member's Interests as donating the sum of £1,250.00 to the coffers of the Tory MP, the Rt. Hon Michael Portillo (see: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa...memi22.htm).

Sir Brian Goswell used to be close to Margaret Thatcher. He also used to be the chairman of John Wick's former security firm ISMG which collapsed with large debts.

Wick also is a Tory in root and branch and appears to be in current financial difficulties with two divorces and two collapsed companies to his name.

Another co-director of Wick's ISSL is Oliver Prior, a semi-retired Lloyd's broker.

I am sure that were one to dig deeper into the background of these characters, no end of smelly stuff would rise to the surface.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...tured.html

of leaks that rocked Westminster breaks his silence and talks of his fear of being tortured

By Jason Lewis
Last updated at 11:48 PM on 16th May 2009

A former Parachute Regiment major and an American-born City public relations man are key players behind the sensational leak of MPs’ expenses claims.

A Mail on Sunday investigation has uncovered their role in supplying computer disks containing MPs’ receipts, leading to a string of shattering revelations about politicians’ conduct.

Both acted as middlemen to negotiate the sale of the information, which they apparently obtained from another unknown source preparing it for the House of Commons authorities.


Links in the chain: Henry Gewanter with his wife Sue, pictured in 1992
Last night one of those involved claimed that they could now be made scapegoats by the Government and even feared arrest and ‘torture’.

The main conduit for the information is John Wick. He is a former soldier who is said to have served in the SAS and is now the boss of a London-based private security firm, and was directly involved in offering the computer disks to at least two newspaper groups.

Twice-married Mr Wick, 60, runs International Security Solutions Limited (ISSL), a firm specialising in helping shipping companies deal with the threat of piracy.

He is working with American-born PR man Henry Gewanter, who is known to have passed ‘samples’ of the expenses claims of individual MPs to several newspapers and allegedly asked for fees of up to £350,000, including up to £15,000 in cash just to view the material.

Neither man ever approached The Mail on Sunday.

Last night Mr Gewanter said: ‘The Government is fighting awful hard to suppress the truth about what they have been doing and I have taken a big risk, a personal risk, in bringing this story to light because it is the right thing to do.

‘If good people don’t stand up and do the right thing then the bad people get it all their own way all the time. That is not a good thing for anybody.’

How the pair first became involved in the affair is unclear, but it is believed to be linked to Mr Wick’s military background.

The House of Commons has recently employed former soldiers as ‘data controllers’ to prevent MPs’ personal information being leaked.

It would be ironic if the decision to beef up security in this way led to information being passed to Mr Wick.

Mr Gewanter, who once worked for Lord Bell, a key adviser to Baroness Thatcher when she was Prime Minister, confirmed he was acting for Mr Wick.

‘This story has not come about because of money or anything of that sort,’ said Mr Gewanter.

‘It involves very courageous people who have all taken very big risks in exposing this stuff to public scrutiny and it is incredibly important.’

He said that he and Mr Wick and the others involved now feared they would be ‘made to pay’ for the revelations, which have seen several senior politicians, including Ministers, suspended while their expenses claims are investigated.

Mr Gewanter said he and the others felt ‘a lot of pressure’ after suggestions that the police should be called in to find the moles and prosecute them.


Associate: Sir Brian Goswell, who was chairman of ISMG which collapsed with huge debts
He added: ‘There is a lot of bull about how “we have got to track them down because they having given away this private information and they could now sell it to criminals or terrorists for personal gain”.

‘But everybody involved in this has been very careful to protect the integrity and security of this information.’

Mr Gewanter said they now feared they would be arrested and even suggested they might be ‘tortured’.

He said: ‘There is a chain of people involved, and I understand that everybody is very keen to print my name or John’s name. The Government would like to catch one of us and waterboard the hell out of us until they can get the next one down the chain.’

Despite suggestions that those involved had demanded up to £350,000 for information about the expenses of all 646 MPs, Mr Gewanter said he had earned nothing from his role.

He refused to discuss the deal which saw The Daily Telegraph obtain disks containing copies of every receipt and expenses claim submitted by MPs in the past four and half years.

He said: ‘The real story in my view isn’t about individuals who have shown courage in exposing the misdeeds of public servants. The story is how elected officials have made rules to suit themselves and passed laws exempting them from tax when they steal money from us. They have been very badly behaved.

‘I have not had a penny for [my involvement in] this and it is driving me mad, taking [time] from my home life, my real business. My paying customers are going down the tubes.

‘I am an American. I was brought up there and I believe that a free Press is the most important and the only defence of our personal freedoms, our liberty and democracy.

‘This Government has been systematically cutting back on our freedoms, our liberty and democracy for some years. That is why I have done it and why I have done it for nothing.

‘Your Government seems to think that people like me are about to sell the stuff to criminals and terrorists and are undermining democracy, but I am not. I am exposing these people for what they are.’

He said his involvement would mean ‘a real serious problem. I’ll get deported or I’ll get locked up or they’ll make life miserable for me for ever’.

But he insisted that he and Mr Wick were acting for the public good and had done nothing wrong, adding: ‘No criminal acts have occurred. No criminal charges can be brought. I don’t deal in stolen goods. The stuff was not stolen. I know you don’t understand how that can be, but I can tell you it was not stolen.’

Mr Wick, meanwhile, failed to respond to several attempts by The Mail on Sunday to get him to explain his role.

He has employed many ex-military personnel and senior police officers as security consultants and it has been suggested that one of these contacts asked him to help sell information obtained from the House of Commons.

After 20 years as a security expert, Mr Wick has recently been beset by money problems.

His latest security firm was established at the end of last year after the collapse of another company, ISMG, with massive debts.

ISMG was wound up by liquidators last December after it was unable to pay nearly £400,000 it owed to creditors. Mr Wick is now desperately trying to rebuild his business.


Home: Mr Wick's girlfriend's flat in Worthing, where he is thought to live
After the financial meltdown of his firm, which saw bailiffs arrive at its City offices over an unpaid rates bill, he was forced to give up his membership of the Carlton Club, the historic Conservative gentleman’s club, and has fallen out with several of his former business associates.

His personal circumstances also appear to have suffered. At one stage Mr Wick was living in a £1 million town house in London.

But his current address, registered at Companies House, is a £110,000 flat owned by his girlfriend Tania Hayes, a blonde dental nurse aged about 40, in a rundown Victorian conversion in Worthing, West Sussex.

Mr Wick is said to have expensive tastes. Last month he was planning a trip to Venice and inquiring about £225-a-head tickets for Musica a Palazzo, where guests can dine while they enjoy a selection of famous opera duets sung at their tables.

He has also had to pay for two divorces. He has two grown-up daughters from his first marriage to Penelope, who still lives in Hereford, the military town where the SAS is based and where Mr Wick began his first security business.

More recently he was married to Fiona Antcliffe, a partner in the top public affairs firm Brunswick, who previously worked for former Tory MPs the late George Gardiner and Sports Minister Colin Moynihan, now Lord Moynihan, at the House of Commons.

Sir Brian Goswell, a respected City figure in the property and construction industry, was chairman of ISMG.

Sir Brian, who was close to Margaret Thatcher and helped to fund Michael Portillo’s Commons office, said last night: ‘John Wick is a military man. He told me he had steel pins inserted in his legs after a parachute accident while he was in the SAS. What he is not is much of a businessman.

‘I am not used to being involved with a firm that collapses and is unable to pay its debts. John Wick has listed me as a consultant with his new company and he rings me from time to time, but I do not have much to do with him now.’

Mr Wick’s co-director in ISSL is Oliver Prior, a semi-retired Lloyd’s broker and non-executive director of Oxus Gold, a mining company which was involved in a political storm when the then Prime Minister Tony Blair intervened on its behalf when it lost gold mining licences in Kyrgyzstan, the former Soviet republic.

Asked about Mr Wick’s involvement in selling the MPs’ expenses data, Mr Prior said: ‘It would not surprise me – that is the sort of deal John specialises in.

‘He is very well connected but he has not told me about it. As far as I know he is in Greece working on something connected to his anti-piracy work. We supply security advice and trained military personnel to protect ships from pirates and I think that is what he is doing. I am not due to see him until later this month.’

Others listed as consultants on ISSL’s website include a former detective chief inspector and Michael Chandler, the ex-chief investigator of the UN Security Council’s Taliban and Al Qaeda monitoring group.

According to Companies House, Mr Wick has previously employed two former Commissioners of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Peter Imbert and Sir David McNee, as directors of his various firms.

Mr Wick failed to respond to messages sent via email, left on his mobile phone and at his office, a serviced building, where meeting rooms can be rented by the hour, near the Bank of England.

But following our approaches, on Friday The Mail on Sunday was contacted by Mr Gewanter.

Asked about Mr Wick’s and Mr Gewanter’s roles last night, a spokeswoman for the Daily and Sunday Telegraph refused to comment.