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COSTA RICA |
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Ukip
Leader's Insurance Company At Heart of Costa
Rica Bribe Case
By David Leigh and Rob Evans, Guardian.uk.co
The insurance business that made the fortune
of the new leader of the UK Independence
party (Ukip) is embroiled in an
international bribery scandal that could
lead to criminal charges in the UK,
according to documents obtained by the
Observer.
A detailed indictment served in Costa Rica
this month alleges that a subsidiary of PWS,
the insurance brokers which Lord Pearson of
Rannoch founded and chaired, grossly
overcharged the small central American state
for its insurance premiums.
The Serious Fraud Office is investigating,
and has arrested a number of PWS executives
for questioning.
But the company itself will face no penalty
if the prosecution succeeds; it has been
disposed of to another insurance broker
since the scandal broke, and the rump of PWS
which holds the liability for any fine or
penalty is in liquidation and without funds.
PWS is alleged to have paid bribes of more
than $700,000 (£426,000) into a bank account
linked to the then Costa Rican president,
Angel Rodríguez, and provided a $1.6m slush
fund for workers of the state insurance
company.
Friends of Malcolm Pearson, the Thatcherite
peer elected on Friday as the leader of the
anti-European and anti-Cameron Ukip, said he
knew "absolutely nothing about the alleged
payments".
The indictment alleges that Pearson himself,
as company chairman, was warned of the
existence of the slush fund by a new Costa
Rican regime which was probing corruption
allegations as long ago as September 2005.
The friends said he had never received the
letter from the Costa Rican authorities. It
had been diverted from his attention by
others in the firm he chaired. One said: "He
was contacted by the British ambassador in
May 2006, which was the first he knew of
it."
According to his friends, the City law firm
Freshfields was subsequently called in, and
the chief executive of PWS, Julian Messent,
resigned, following the visit to Pearson of
a delegation from the Costa Rican
authorities.
Minutes of the Pearson meeting published in
Costa Rica say that, during those
negotiations, he offered to co-operate with
the central American prosecutors, if no
action was taken against the PWS company. He
suggested PWS might return any money if the
claims were substantiated.
Following complaints of inaction, however,
the SFO was called in in 2007. It made
arrests, and obtained banking information,
which was sent to Costa Rica in August.
Pearson said he had been interviewed by
police and expected to be a witness if any
UK charges were brought.
He added: "It is very regrettable that
something like this should happen. But in
1997 when this started, it was regarded as
perfectly normal. Under that regime, all the
other insurance brokers were doing exactly
the same thing."
Julian Messent said he was unable to comment
as the inquiry was still in progress.
Pearson, an old Etonian, was made Lord
Pearson of Rannoch, where he has a Scottish
estate, by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.
He and two others working in his father's
insurance business founded PWS when he was
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