The Camerons, the Blairmore project and the unanswered tax questions

David Cameron and father Ian

Details of the offshore company that was set up by Ian Cameron, the father of Britain’s prime minster David and which paid no UK taxes is given below. The business of Blairmore Holdings Inc is no ‘private affair’, as David Cameron prefers to put it, nor are the questions raised about Blairmore merely about legality. On the contrary, this is a matter of morality, involving issues that goes straight to the heart of Britain’s class system and of how the establishment in government and industry circles enables the rich to retain their wealth to the detriment of everyone else. There are many unanswered questions, not least about the entire tax avoidance system with which Britain leads the way (see Appendix)…

(See also: Blairmore Holdings: its current fund nomenclature and dealings)

UPDATE 1: Entire prospectus (78 pages) of Blairmore Holdings.

UPDATE 2: to see a spreadsheet of all known (exposed/declared) British peers’ and MPs offshore interests (tax havens etc) click here or here (alternatively click here to see this as a report in pdf format).

UPDATE 3: David Cameron’s tax return ‘lite’ is a summary only (image below shows main page). Here are all four pages of the schedule via RNS accountants. According to the Guardian, “The records show that the prime minister received a considerable boost to his savings in 2011. Following the death of his father in 2010, Cameron was left £300,000 tax free as an inheritance. However, his mother also transferred two payments of £100,000 to him in May and July 2011.” No doubt further questions will be asked.

Main story…

Two years after Ian Cameron’s death in 2010, the Blairmore Holdiings fund was worth £25 million. When Ian Cameron died in 2010, he left an estate worth £2.7 million, including £300,000 in cash to David Cameron – just under the inheritance tax threshold at that point in time.

Here is a brief ‘history’ of the Blairmore project…

Blairmore Holdings was incorporated in Panama in 1981 by Ian Cameron, but was actually based in the Bahamas. A photo of the street which Ian Cameron gave as his Bahamas ‘residential’ address is given below.

As well as Blairmore Holdings, prior to his death Ian Cameron was involved with Blairmore Asset Management (Geneva) and Close International (Jersey).

According to a 2006 Prospectus, Blairmore Holdings was set up in order to avoid payment of tax in the UK:

According to a 2004 document the then Board members of Blairmore Holdings included: Mr. Ian D. Cameron, Mr. Andrew J. Weight, Mr. Daniel S. Martineau, Mr. Nicholas Peppiatt, Mr. Patrick Smiley, Mr. eroen Bos, Mr. John Anderson, Mrs. Betty A. Roberts by her proxy Daniel S. Martineau, Mr. James B. Hoar by his proxy Daniel S. Martineau, and Mr. Brent Haines by his proxy Daniel S. Martineau.

Directors were: Mr. John Anderson, Mr. eroen Bos, Mr. Ian D. Cameron, Mr. Brent Haines, Mr. James B. Hoar (and Vice President Assistant Secretary), Mr. Andrew Hunziker, Mr. Daniel S. Martineau, Mr. Nicholas Peppiatt, Mrs. Betty A. Roberts (and company President), Mr. Patrick Smiley and Mr. Andrew J. Weight. Ms. Katrena Mitchell held the position of Vice President Treasurer, Mr. Kendal C. Simmons held the position of Assistant Treasurer and Ms. Effie F. Burrows held the position of company Secretary.

Here is an extract from a 2006 document that quotes Ian Cameron’s then position in Blairmore Holdings:

Blairmore moved its operations to Dublin in 2010 and started paying Irish corporation tax. This move coincided witth Cameron junior becoming UK prime minister.

However, it should be noted that David Cameron and his wife owned 5,000 units in a Blairmore investment trust, which they purchased in April 1997 for £12,497 and sold in January 2010 worth around £31,500. During the 2010 general election campaign, David Cameron failed to declare his offshore shares.

From 31 December 2014, the Blairmore Global Equity Fund, a sub-fund of Blairmore Funds plc, merged with the Smith & Williamson Blairmore Global Equity Fund (SWBGE Fund), a sub-fund of Smith & Williamson Investment Funds plc, which is a division of Smith & Williamson  (Note: it is difficult to navigate around this site, so here is a site map, with a link direct to the main players. Also, several of Blairmore Holdings board members are listed – see lnks above – as now being with Smith & Williamson.)

Here are details of the SWBGE Fund via TrustNet Offshore. According to its current listings, the SWBGE Fund states: “The investment objective of the Fund is to achieve capital appreciation through investment in an actively managed long only portfolio consisting primarily of global equities. The Fund is an Ireland domiciled UCITS scheme (FCA recognised) launched on 5th July 2012 with the transfer of assets from the Panama domiciled Blairmore Holdings Inc. The unregulated scheme was launched in 1984.”

Appendix: unanswered questions;

1. In 1997 David Cameron used £5000 of his own money to purchase shares in offshore funds, set up by his father via Blairmore Holdings (funds organised in Jersey, Panama, Cayman Islands, Bahamas and Geneva): was this to avoid UK tax and why did he not list these shares when he became MP in 2001?
2. In 2010 David Cameron received £300,000 from his father: can he explain how much of this came from the offshore funds via Blairmore Holdings?
3. How much of the £200,000 gifted to David Cameron by his mother resulted from shares via Blairmore Holdings?
4. How many members of his extended family (e.g. siblings) hold shares via Blairmore Holdings or its successor funds – and how much?
5. And the big question: in 2009 David Cameron sold £140,000 worth of shares: £31,000 from Blairmore Holdings – so where were the other £109,000 worth of shares held?