London, Jan 8 (ANI): Tony Blair has struck a number of lucrative deals that have earned him millions of pounds, since walking out of Downing Street in June 2007.
Blair is an adviser to foreign governments, a highly paid public speaker, an international consultant and a philanthropist. He is also a Middle East peace envoy with an office in Jerusalem and author of a best-selling memoir.
He is paid around 3 million pounds a year to advise both JP Morgan, the US investment bank, and also Zurich International, the global insurer based in Switzerland.
On top of that he runs his own consultancy firm - Tony Blair Associates - which advises the oil and gas rich governments of Kuwait and Kazakhstan.
According to the Telegraph, this confusing mix of business, politics and philanthropy is run by a complex system of companies.
There are two parallel companies both with similar structures. One is called Windrush Ventures and another is called Firerush Ventures.
Windrush Ventures Limited is the management company that runs the Windrush Ventures Group. It is described in emails sent by Blair's staff as the 'trading name' of The Office of Tony Blair.
Within the group there is - besides Windrush Ventures Limited - a Windrush Ventures No.1 Ltd, Windrush Ventures No.2 LLP and Windrush Ventures No.3 LP. The LP - because it is a liability partnership rather than a limited company - does not have any legal obligation to publish accounts. Firerush Ventures has a similar set up.
According to its accounts, Windrush Venture's highest paid director earns 20,000 pounds. This director presumed to be Catherine Rimmer, a former Downing Street aide and officially Blair's strategic director.
On March 31 2011, Windrush Ventures recorded a group turnover of a little over 12 million pounds. In other words, Blair's management company was being paid 12 million pounds - most of it coming from the secretive Windrush Ventures LP - for 'the provision of management services'.
After accounting for the rest of the money, Windrush Ventures is left with 8 million pounds of unaccounted 'administrative expenses'. There is no obligation under company law to say what happens to that money.
Although Windrush's accounts seem legitimate, it is not clear what monies go through Windrush and what income is channelled through Firerush.
There have been reports that Firerush is the structure set up to handle income from Tony Blair Associates, which if true - and on the scale of the Windrush accounts - would suggest the Blair Empire, including his charities, have incomes far beyond what anybody had realised.
Firerush's accounts have only partially been published and reveal little, although fuller accounts are anticipated later in 2012. (ANI)
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