General Discussion

malaise

(268,998 posts) Sat Sep 28, 2019, 09:55 PM Sep 2019

BoJo is in serious trouble

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/sep/28/boris-johnson-jennifer-arcuri-loan-hacker-house-grant
<snip>
Jennifer Arcuri, the entrepreneur whose friendship with Boris Johnson is the subject of a police watchdog investigation, loaned more than £700,000 to her own fledgling technology company shortly before it won a £100,000 government grant.

It is unclear where the money channelled to Hacker House, a start-up with hardly any income, came from. This adds to the mystery swirling around the American businesswoman before this week’s Tory conference and raises further questions for the government.

One person who knew Arcuri was “stunned” to learn that company accounts show her loaning Hacker House £713,354 last year. Other firms set up by Arcuri are in the red or have been dissolved. Her main company, Innotech Network, has negative assets of more than £350,000 and she is reportedly being sued in the US over an unpaid $100,000 student loan.

Questions have now emerged as to how the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport established that the company was viable. The DCMS has admitted waiving a rule that any grant should not exceed half the company’s revenue. “The department needs to explain how their due diligence procedures were followed,” said Lib Dem MP Layla Moran.

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Bye bye Boris