New Labour sleaze: Jowell's Iran sanctions busting connection

sundayherald:.. It is understood that, late on Friday, Downing Street was made aware that Michael Ancram, the former shadow foreign secretary, had tabled a Treasury question for Chancellor Gordon Brown asking if the government had carried out any investigation over the past three years into "the dealings of Mr David Mills in connection with the sale of aviation spare parts and equipment to Iran in contravention of the United Nations and European Union trade sanctions".

Jowell was last week under pressure to explain the extent of her knowledge, or lack of knowledge, of her husband's business dealings; the expected focus being the payment in 1999 of 350,000 pounds placed for Mills in an offshore hedge fund and on the subsequent re-mortgage (lodged in both Mills's and Jowell's names) in September 2000 which enabled the 350,000 pounds to be brought on-shore a month later.

Ancram's inquiry centres on Mills's work for a company called Saint James Capital and an Iranian lawyer, Shahan Shirkhani. Mills was also involved with a firm that dealt in exports to Iran which, in 2003, had tried to buy passenger aircraft, a deal in conflict with US law because the aircraft was fitted with US-made engines. Read more

db: She will be gone, no doubt - this story has got it all: Berlusconi corruption/ bribery/live criminal investigation, money laundering, Italian mafia, and now illegal dealings with the 'Axis of Evil'. How could she stay?

I am hoping that Blair continues to back her. Because when she ultimately goes it will hurt him that much more. [Life is cruel].