Billionaires buggering up democracies

[IvanV]

After Musk became Trump's best buddy, and supported his election with all his billionaire powers, with the aim of buggering up the USA, now apparently Nick Candy has become Nigel Farage's best buddy and apparently is going to support him all the better to bugger up Britain. It's a shame he didn't get to buy Chelsea - his bid failed - that might have distracted him. That's Chelsea FC, not Chelsea the upmarket area of London. He probably owns a fair amount of the latter.

Nick Candy, together his brother Christian, became extremely rich by developing very expensive (mainly) domestic property. They call themselves billionaires, though it is difficult to know quite how rich they are, probably well hidden in off-shore companies.

One of their best known developments is One Hyde Park, where some of the individual apartments go for 9-figure sums. In 2014, Vanity Fair reported, 60 out of the 62 apartments were owned by companies registered in tax havens. And there is little evidence of many of the actually being lived in - you don't see many lights on in the evening. Just the kind of thing kleptocrats like to buy to launder their ill-gotten gains. There are of course laws against money laundering, and doubtless the Candy Bros are very scrupulous in ensuring that all the transactions they enter into comply with all the necessary laws, just like all the other City institutions that handle large sums of money.

And of course it goes on elsewhere.

Berlusconi had quite a long stint or two buggering up Italy, using his power to favour his own business interests. Fortunately he is now unavailable for reelection.

The Czech Rep was recently being buggered up by one of their richest men Andrej Babiš, who was prime minister for a while, but lost his bid for reelection last year. (Not to be confused with another rich Czech Daniel Křetínský who is buying the Royal Mail, and dabbling in 2 football clubs - West Ham and Sparta Prague, but so far staying out of politics. Or Karel Komárek whose company recently took over the UK national lottery.)

Oh look, here's an article in the Grauniad about it from a few weeks ago, before Candy's announcement. In fact 50% more billionaires donated to Harris than to Trump. But there was no other who got anywhere near as elbows deep in it, with practical support, as Musk, the richest of them all. And who has become a huge amount richer since the election, as the markets anticipate what his power will give him.

[Gfamily]

Sometimes because they're asked to

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