Donor of the Week: Michael Hintze
Author: Jack Maizels
Published on Jun 29, 2012
Our Donor of the Week series aims to shed some light on the people, companies and organisations who are funding our political parties. Each week, we’ll look at the chosen donor’s political involvement, their donation history and any controversy associated with their actions, and question whether this really is the best system for financing our politics.
Who he is:
- An Australian born businessman who made his fortune with the hedge fund Convertible & Quantitative Strategies Management (CQS)
- His worth was estimated to be $1.4bn, as of March 2012
- Before founding CQS in 1999, Hintze worked for Salomon Brothers, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse First Boston
Political Involvement:
- He has been a Conservative Party donor since 2002 and is quoted as saying that “It is pretty clear to me that my success has happened in the UK because of the context that the Conservative Party provided”
- The Atlantic Bridge, a charity set up by former Defence Secretary Liam Fox to promote British-American co-operation, received over half of its funding from Hintze, before being dissolved in 2011 after a critical Charity Commission report
- Another body that receives major funding from Hintze is the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a think tank founded by former Chancellor Nigel Lawson that challenges the science and cost of tackling climate change
Donations:
- His most recent donation to the Conservatives was for £41,500 in March of 2012, just over a decade after his first donation of £10,000
- From 2002, he donated sums of less than £40,000 each year until 2006, when his donations soared to above £200,000, a trend that continued until 2011, when dipped back down again
- In total, he given the Conservatives £1,405,580 over 32 donations, and almost £90,000 to Conservatives MPs including Chancellor George Osborne, former Defence Secretary Liam Fox and London Mayor Boris Johnson, whilst the latter was still an MP
- CQS has also made donations to the Party and its MPs totalling £26,111
Controversy:
- It was revealed in June 2012 that CQS paid only £77,000 of UK corporation tax in 2010, despite annual earning around £125m, due to the company being registered off-shore in Jersey
- The company's traders are also registered in Jersey, allowing them to avoid large amounts of income tax
- Hintze was linked Adam Werrity, the Executive Director of Atlantic Bridge and whose ties to Liam Fox led to a lobbying scandal resulting in the Defence Secretary’s resignation
- The Telegraph revealed that Hintze had allowed Werrity to use office space in CQS’s headquarters for free, and the Guardian found that he had paid for flights taken by both Fox and Werrity
Notes:
- Date of the donation is the date the donation was accepted by the party
- Analysis refers to donations to main party, individual MPs, MEPs, local parties and affiliated groups, cash donations and non-cash donations
- Electoral Commission Donation Reports have only been available since 2001, and analysis does not consider any donations made before this point
- Variations of the same name e.g. Joe Bloggs, Mr Joe Bloggs, Sir J Bloggs, etc are all collated as the same donor
- Donations from companies that have moved address, changed name or have several subdivisions all making donations are also collated as the same donor, as are all previous forms of the same Trade Unions