Peter Mandelson’s former lobbying firm sought work with companies controlled by the governments of Russia and China shortly after he left ministerial office, according to emails the disgraced former minister forwarded to the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The emails show how Mandelson and Benjamin Wegg-Prosser scrambled to drum up high-paying foreign business after co-founding Global Counsel even as Mandelson remained a member of the House of Lords. Potential clients included the Russian state investment firm Rusnano and the state-owned China International Capital Corporation, the emails suggest.
The emails also showed that Wegg-Prosser met Epstein at his New York townhouse in 2010 to discuss the business. A person with knowledge of the situation said the meeting was at Mandelson’s request and only lasted 25 minutes. Wegg-Prosser resigned as Global Counsel’s chief executive on Friday amid intense scrutiny.
A huge trove of 3m files from the investigation into Epstein has laid bare the extent of the financier’s communication with a host of politicians, business leaders and royalty from around the world. Epstein served a 2008 jail term for child sex offences, but retained much of his influence until his arrest and death in custody in 2019.
The revelation that Mandelson and Epstein were in close contact after his conviction has caused a political crisis for Keir Starmer. The prime minister is under intense pressure after he revealed that he appointed Mandelson to the role of US ambassador despite knowing about his friendship with Epstein.
Mandelson did not respond to requests for comment.
Global Counsel has tried to distance itself from the scandal, revoking Mandelson’s voting rights and pushing him to divest his stake in the business. A Global Counsel spokesperson said Epstein played no role in the foundation of the business.
However, the emails give an insight into the work of Global Counsel, and reveal the efforts of Mandelson and Wegg-Prosser to secure lucrative work.
The documents showed that Mandelson and Wegg-Prosser both individually met Epstein in March 2010, when Mandelson was still business minister, and before the formal foundation of Global Counsel. The meetings took place at Epstein’s New York townhouse, according to a schedule contained in the files. Wegg-Prosser was described in a separate email setting up his meeting as “Mandelson’s friend”. Mandelson had emailed a few weeks earlier saying that: “Ben is coming to NYC to meet you and explain the business plan …”
Mandelson left office after the general election in May 2010 when Labour lost power, although he remained a member of the House of Lords. Within days he had already started pushing for jobs with mining company Glencore and oil major BP.
However, Mandelson and Wegg-Prosser also pushed ahead with forming Global Counsel. In August Mandelson wrote in an email that the Russian state-owned Sberbank would be a potential target for business.
By October 2010 Wegg-Prosser wrote in an email to a healthcare chief executive that the company would “consider opportunities in Russia, principally via Rusnano, who we are in discussions with”. Rusnano is a technology investment fund owned by the Russian state. A person close to Global Counsel said the discussions happened before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, at a time when the UK was attempting to deepen business relations with Russia.
By January 2011 Global Counsel appeared to have its sights on another large state-backed target: China International Capital Corporation. Wegg-Prosser sent a list of “leads” to James Palumbo, a peer and businessman who appeared to refer to Mandelson as “Mr Grumpy”.
In an email response to Wegg-Prosser, Palumbo advised Global Counsel to offer expensive communications advice. He wrote: “It seems a pity to let a third party take care of a potential 5-10 year communications mandate worth £250,000 a year from CICC.”
The email also appeared to suggest that another possible client for Global Counsel was “BAE”, likely a reference to BAE Systems, the UK’s largest defence manufacturer. Mandelson’s work as business secretary directly concerned BAE Systems. A BAE Systems spokesperson said: “We have never appointed Global Counsel as a strategic adviser to BAE Systems and we have no record of having contracted the company in any other capacity.”
In May 2012, Mandelson was still chasing Russian connections. Before a World Economic Forum event in Istanbul, Mandelson claimed that “I will email Putin” and other senior politicians to try to organise meetings. There is no evidence in the files that he received any response.
By 29 May 2012, a Global Counsel employee prepared a pitch to a Greek state-owned development fund offering help “securing a very high level of political awareness of the fund and its role”. The fund, the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund, was set up in 2011 to oversee privatisations amid the chaos of the country’s sovereign debt crisis.
The draft pitch, sent to Mandelson and Wegg-Prosser, advised a “strategy that seeks to establish links” with top-level policymakers across Europe, including the UK’s “No 10” and “the Treasury”.
Wegg-Prosser held another meeting in February 2011 with the Iranian property developer Vincent Tchenguiz to discuss possible work by Global Counsel. The meeting happened three weeks before Tchenguiz and his brother, Robert, were arrested by the Serious Fraud Office. The SFO later abandoned the botched investigation and paid Tchenguiz £6m in damages and costs.
In an email to Epstein before the arrest, Mandelson described Tchenguiz as a “very interesting Iranian now in Park Lane” – after being informed by Wegg-Prosser that there were “wider reputational issues” because Tchenguiz could be described as a “corporate raider”.
A spokesperson on behalf of Tchenguiz’s Consensus Business Group said: “Neither Vincent Tchenguiz nor Consensus Business Group have engaged the services of Global Counsel. Although we met with Global Counsel, it didn’t progress to any commercial, or further engagement.”
A spokesperson for Global Counsel said: “Global Counsel was founded by Ben Wegg-Prosser with Peter Mandelson and with a founding investment from WPP plc in November in 2010. Epstein never played any role in the establishment or ongoing business of Global Counsel, in any form whatsoever.
“Like Gordon Brown and many others we are only now being made aware of the full extent of Mandelson’s conduct.”
