UK
FBI interviews Liz Truss’s chief of staff as witness in alleged bribery case

Ben Riley-Smith
Sun, September 18, 2022 

Mark Fullbrook - Dominic Lipinski

Liz Truss’s chief of staff was interviewed by the FBI as a witness in connection to an alleged bribery case in Puerto Rico, it has emerged.

Mark Fullbrook, who helped run Ms Truss’s leadership campaign and before that was a political consultant, was contacted via the Metropolitan Police.

The allegations centre on Julio Herrera Velutini, an international banker and former Conservative Party donor, and his involvement in Puerto Rican politics.

Mr Fullbrook did some political work for Mr Velutini when he was at CT Group, the lobbying firm founded by Sir Lynton Crosby, the Australian political strategist nicknamed “the wizard of Oz”.

Mr Velutini has been accused of promising to help a governor in the US territory called Wanda Vázquez Garced get re-elected if a regulator investigating his bank was sacked.

Mr Velutini has pleaded not guilty to charges including bribery. Ms Vázquez Garced has been arrested and has declared her innocence. The case is on-going.
Mark Fullbrook’s links

The case and Mr Fullbrook’s links, which first emerged via the Sarawak Report website and Channel Four, were reported by The Sunday Times this weekend.

According to The Sunday Times, the FBI was interested in allegations that Mr Velutini offered to contribute $300,000 to Ms Vázquez Garced’s 2020 re-election campaign.

In return, it is alleged, Mr Velutini demanded that the head of the island’s financial regulator was sacked. The individual is later alleged to have resigned,

Mr Fullbrook was paid for opinion research on the Puerto Rico elections by Mr Velutini. However, the work was only for Mr Velutini, according to Mr Fullbrook’s spokesperson.

Mr Fullbook is understood to have bidded for work with Ms Vázquez Garced’s re-election effort. However, he was unsuccessful in this bid and this meant Mr Fullbook did not end up working directly with the candidate.

It is unusual for a UK political figure to be interviewed by the FBI in relation to a high-profile US investigation.
Only treated as a witness

Mr Fullbrook has only ever been treated as a witness in the matter by US investigators, according to his spokesperson, and has cooperated fully with inquiries.

The allegations, which surfaced during the Tory leadership campaign, have gained more media prominence in the UK since Ms Truss became Prime Minister.

Mr Fullbrook was deputy director of Conservative Campaign Headquarters during Margaret Thatcher’s premiership and helped run Sir John Major’s 1992 election campaign.

Mr Fullbrook was more recently a senior figure in CT Group, founded by Sir Lynton and Mark Textor in Australia in 2002, but earlier this year he founded his own lobbying company.
Central role in Liz Truss’s campaign

He was first advising Nadhim Zahawi, now the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, on a Tory leadership bid before later playing a central role in Ms Truss’s campaign.

There is no suggestion that Mr Fullbrook was aware of the alleged bribe or committed any wrongdoing.

A spokesperson for Mark Fullbrook said: “As has been made repeatedly clear, Mr Fullbrook is committed to and complies with all laws and regulations in any jurisdiction in which he works and is confident that he has done so in this matter.

“Indeed, Mark Fullbrook is a witness in this matter and has fully, completely and voluntarily engaged with the US authorities in this matter, as he would always do in any circumstance in which his assistance is sought by authorities.

“The work was engaged only by Mr Herrera [Julio Herrera Velutini] and only to conduct opinion research for him and no one else. Mr Fullbrook never did any work for, nor presented any research findings to, the governor or her campaign. There has been no engagement since.

“Mr Fullbrook understands that there are active legal proceedings against other individuals and entities. It would therefore be inappropriate to comment further.”

A Downing Street spokesperson declined to comment.