When the dust settles, one wonders how much will be heaped upon the usually immaculate head of Mohamed Amersi – and how much will stick elsewhere.
The ‘dealmaker’, venture capitalist, political donor and philanthropist is among the most influential people in Britain.
The great and the good clear their diaries whenever one of his gilded invitations drops onto their mat.
Hallowed academic institutions seek his aid if a new library or a refurbishment is needed.
But this week the silver-tongued outsider – he was born and raised in Kenya – has caused consternation at Westminster and in the Royal Household by setting out his ‘grave disappointment’ at the manner in which he has been treated by those upon whose organisations he had showered largesse.
Few will be surprised to learn that money was the key to his entry into the British Establishment. A lot of money.
And few of those name-checked by the furious Amersi will be enjoying the experience.
Not least among them are the Prince of Wales and his entrepreneurial nephew, Ben Elliot.
Businessman Mohamed Amersi and his wife Nadejda Roditcheva at the National Osteoporosis Society fundraising fashion show in 2016
Prince Charles and Conservative Party Chairman and Quintessentially co-founder Ben Elliot, his nephew through marriage to Camilla, pictured together in June 2015
Elliot, the son of the Duchess of Cornwall’s sister Annabel, is the founder of concierge firm to the A-list, Quintessentially.
If you have the wherewithal, Quintessentially will take care of your every lifestyle need, from a restaurant reservation to securing you a seat on a spaceship to Mars should you desire it.
But Elliot is also the co-chairman of the Conservative Party. As such he is both impeccably connected and anxious to monetise those connections in the form of business deals and political or charitable donations.
Under Elliot’s auspices Amersi was granted a tete-a-tete dinner with his uncle, Prince Charles.
He was then allowed, most graciously, to underwrite some of HRH’s favourite charitable causes to the tune of £1.2million.
He has also been persuaded to pay a total of £524,000 into Conservative Party coffers.
His glamorous Russian-born partner Nadedza Rodicheva has donated a further £268,000.
Some of these donations – all declared and above board – have been given to the private offices of Conservative big beasts such as Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Jeremy Hunt and Rory Stewart (£10,000 each).
Amersi no doubt felt his feet were well under the table at both Clarence House and Tory HQ. He was almost one of the family.
Mohamed Amersi with Prince Charles. His membership of Quintessentially led to a meeting with the prince over an intimate dinner at Dumfries House in Scotland
But these twin compacts now appear to be in ruins. As a result of an internal row over Amersi’s plans to reshape Tory relations with the Middle East, some within the party asked questions about his past business practises.
Where did his fortune come from exactly, and how? What were his links to Russia and the hostile Iranian regime?
Amersi was outraged. First he began legal action against former MP Charlotte Leslie over memos she allegedly wrote and circulated, containing the allegations.
He says he is seeking full disclosure of relevant documents before he decides whether or not to sue her for libel.
Now his ire is also being directed at Elliot and other senior figures at Tory HQ.
They have not supported him in his hour of need, he claims. The hand that fed them £750,000 has been bitten hard in return.
‘I am so disappointed with them,’ he told the Daily Mail last night.
‘Sometimes I wonder if I was white, my name was John Smith and I had been to Eton and Oxford, I might have been treated differently. I think there is some truth in that.
‘As someone who has given so much money and even advised on election strategy, I am horrified that when something like this happened they did not even have the courtesy and decency to say, ‘‘Mohamed, what can we do to help you. Can we issue a statement supporting you?’’
‘I still love the party, but it cannot be right that when difficulties arise they run for the hills. I certainly did not expect this blue on blue treatment.’
Amersi, 61, comes from a wealthy ‘old merchant family’ based in the Kenyan port city of Mombassa.
At the age of 16 he came to the UK and attended Merchant Taylors’, a public school in Hertfordshire.
He then studied medicine and law at Sheffield and Cambridge before attending the Oxford University’s Saïd Business School.
Amersi, 61, comes from a wealthy ‘old merchant family’ based in the Kenyan port city of Mombassa. At the age of 16 he came to the UK and attended Merchant Taylors’ (pictured), a public school in Hertfordshire.
He began his career as a corporate lawyer before striking out on his own into the world of international finance.
For much of the last 40 years he has been based in Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, New York and the United Arab Emirates, describing himself as a ‘renowned global communications entrepreneur, philanthropist and thought leader’.
Amersi met his long-term partner Nadedza in New York and has one child with his wife, from whom he is separated.
He lives in central London and also owns a Grade II-listed Georgian-style manor house in rural Devon.
He told the Mail: ‘I have been fully resident here and a UK taxpayer for the last three to four years.
Amersi says he first became a client of Quintessentially shortly after it was founded in 2000. He paid £15,000 a year to have ‘elite’ level membership
'More or less since the time I started donating to the [Tory] Party.’ Along the way he set up the Amersi Foundation, a vehicle for his global philanthropy which is registered in the Bahamas.
He says he first became a client of Quintessentially shortly after it was founded in 2000.
He paid £15,000 a year to have ‘elite’ level membership. There was nothing oversold about the access this offered.
‘This very top tier was fascinating because we were invited to be exposed to the establishment here, whether it is the royal establishment, Clarence House, St James’s Palace, Buckingham Palace, Dumfries House,’ Amersi told the Sunday Times
