FactChecK: is Abrahams a millionaire?

Last Modified: 30 Nov 2007
By: Channel 4 News

Is the man at the heart of the donations-by-proxy row wealthy enough to have donated more than £670,000 to the Labour party?

David Abrahams has been described in most articles about him as a wealthy property developer, well known in the north-east.

Indeed, he must be wealthy if he has been able to donate more than £670,000 to the Labour party through various business associates.

But for most wealthy property developers, it is possible to track their assets through public records. Many UK property developers hold their wealth through limited companies, which are registered at Companies House. These are obliged to publish accounts every year, which contain details of their assets and liabilities.

But David Abrahams's footprint on Companies House is surprisingly small. He is linked with nine companies as owner or director, of which two are so new that they have only recently filed accounts.

One of these is Durham Green Developments Ltd, which is linked with plans to develop a large business park beside the A1 in County Durham.

Mr Abrahams has strongly denied allegations that his donations to the party were in any way linked to attempts to overturn Highways Agency objections to this plan.

In the black

Of the companies which have filed accounts, only one company, Webfast Ltd, is in the black. It has £144,030 in shareholders' funds. The rest are all in debt.

Only one reports a significant amount of assets: Acorn Business Park (Durham) Ltd. It has assets of £7.8m, but short-term debts of £7.9m, mostly in bank loans.

Add all the companies' debts together, and the whole lot only has total shareholders' funds of £23,263; it would buy quite a few rounds of brown ale, but it's very little for a man who has been able to give £670,000 to the Labour Party over the past four years.

What does this mean? Well, Mr Abrahams may well have assets in other places. He might have large sums of cash in the bank, or he might hold a large portfolio of property in his own name, rather than through companies. These are all perfectly legal ways to hold assets, but most developers do not hold their assets this way.

He might well hold the money offshore, in a country where companies are not obliged to publish accounts. But there is no sign of an offshore holding company in his recent published accounts.

It all adds another layer of mystery to an already perplexing story.

Property

Further mystery surrounds two of Mr Abrahams' properties in North London.

In documents filed with Companies' House in 2006, he lists his home address as a flat in St John's Wood. The flat has been owned by a different person since 2005, and neighbours and concierges at the block say he sold up years ago.

A wealthy property developer, selling a flat in a rapidly rising market? It's a surprising move. A man with plenty of cash and a good knowledge of the property industry might be expected to hold onto it, as a good investment.

The electoral roll lists him as living at a flat in another block in the same postcode. But his spokesman says that he does not own it. He rents it from a landlord. He has sold one flat, and rented another further down the street. Again, this is an unusual (though perfectly legitimate) thing for a man of great wealth to do.

Most people with £670,000 to spare would probably buy their pied-a-terre in London before handing it all to a political party.

Mr Abrahams's spokesman insists that he is the original source of the money, and has not donated it on behalf of anyone else. And none of the information on Companies' House contradicts this.

But it's unusual for there to be so little cash registered in his the public records of his business affairs. In a story with many mysteries, one thing is certain: Mr Abrahams is a very unusual property developer.

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