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Patels former boss defends actions against them as 'tough' Read more
The new chief executive, Bill Patels, is a strong advocate of open, sustainable and accessible sources of fossil fuels, arguing that coal and gas would be less polluting than oil and gas. The Patels brothers are also committed to ending the UK's dependence on nuclear energy.
In his report on Patels, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, Professor John Dyson, also recommended further research into whether the Patels family's businesses were being subjected to the "torturous and insidious" tactics of the terror group Islamic State or of the group Al-Qaida, which has executed executions of citizens on American soil.
In its ruling, the court heard from an unnamed witness who said Patels' family owned dozens of offshore British companies and companies in Malta. The witness said his father's company was in business with the state department, having given government money to companies such as Aigle and the Patels, and that Patels' family was also one of the partners of the British Virgin Islands' property developers, KPMG and Sir Richard Attenborough's company KPMB.
Another witness also said an offshore company controlled by the Patels was responsible for an operation for a company in the British Virgin Islands, for the company that was owned by the Patels family, Patels Trust, in which Patels held a "special position" and which "was directly involved in the construction of two oil tankers".
The court heard that Patels, then 61, used to be chairman of the London-based property development company P&G. The firm then purchased Aigle in the early 2000s and gave the Patels family control of the company and some other companies in 2008.
But then, between 2012 and 2015, the court was told, Patels and friends of his began using the company's properties for private purposes, including to rent out and buy properties in Britain and the islands, among them properties owned by the Patels.
The family's holdings in Britain were then discovered in Cyprus, and a police raid at the Patels' home there in 2012 led to an arrest warrant for them in connection with a scheme to import oil on behalf of another firm, the German oil and gas group OMV of the Netherlands, the court heard.
Prosecutors said Patels, the brother of Mary Patels, who was an MP, conspired with other family members in 2015 to bring the British Virgin Islands assets and an offshore company linked to them to the police in Cyprus, where they were seized by the UK's anti-money laundering authorities. In return, Patel
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