Secret Tory Lender Is Australian

Sydney Morning Herald

Tuesday March 28, 2006

James Button Herald Correspondent in London

AN AUSTRALIAN hedge fund millionaire has been revealed as the largest secret benefactor of the British Conservative Party, as the loans affair that has damaged the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, threatens to embarrass the Conservatives as well.

Michael Hintze, a businessman who holds dual citizenship, lent the Conservatives #2.5 million ($6.15 million) via an offshore account two days before the general election last May, in which both main parties used secret loans to fund their costly campaigns. A poll last week showed 70 per cent of Britons thought the Blair Government was "sleazy" after Mr Blair and his aides arranged #14 million from lenders, four of whom were later nominated for peerages.

But the affair has now involved the Conservatives, who are resisting pressure from the Electoral Commission to disclose their full list of lenders and sums that could be as high as #20 million.

Mr Hintze, 51, a former Australian Army captain who has degrees in electrical engineering, maths and physics from Sydney University, outed himself on a Tory activist website, saying he was "immensely proud" of his support for the party. "I am pleased to be able to help, both with the declared donations I have made and through the loan from the UK-based trading company, Morain UK, of which I am an ultimate beneficiary and which responded to the party's need for support by agreeing to a secured loan on commercial terms last year," he wrote.

Mr Hintze has been a London trader since 1982 and is one of the city's wealthiest bankers, worth #150 million, according to The Sunday Times rich list. He was a former top trader at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse First Boston in London and is a generous arts donor.

© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald

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