A MAJOR donor to the Conservative Party has been sanctioned by the UK and the European Union over his alleged role in the Russian oil trade.
Murtaza Lakhani, a 63-year-old Canadian-Pakistani oil magnate, has been hit with an asset freeze, travel ban and transport restrictions, The Times reported. The sanctions were imposed on the grounds that his activities materially assisted the Russian government.
Lakhani donated £500,000 to the Conservative Party in 2019 through his company Mercantile & Maritime UK, ahead of Boris Johnson’s election victory.
The Conservative Party told the Financial Times that donations were received “in good faith” and declared in line with the law.
An investigation by The Times and SourceMaterial in 2022 found that Cetracore, an Austrian company majority-owned by Lakhani, bought ten shiploads of oil products from Russia’s state-owned oil company Rosneft in August 2022, citing industry data.
The purchases came months after President Vladimir Putin launched the war in Ukraine, at a time when other oil companies had reduced Russian trading. The activity was not in breach of sanctions at the time.
The UK sanctions statement said vessels or aircraft owned or controlled by Lakhani would be barred from UK ports. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said he supported the Russian government through businesses operating in the Russian energy sector, citing links to Cetracore, Tejarinaft, Amur II and Fossil Trading. The EU has taken similar action.
