Brown asked to investigate legitimacy of Blair's companies

London, Nov. 15 (ANI): British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been asked to investigate the legitimacy of his predecessor Tony Blair's multi-million pound companies and partnerships, which he set up after leaving the office.

Blair, who is estimated to have earned as much as 15 million dollars since leaving office, did not register the series of companies with the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA), the watchdog set up to vet ex-ministers' appointments to avoid "any suspicion of impropriety", The Guardian reports.

Even though Blair has registered his consultancies with JP Morgan and Zurich Financial, his private speaking engagements and Tony Blair Associates, he hasn't declared any information on Windrush ventures.

Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker wrote to Brown, who presides over the Ministerial Code, saying: "I am writing to you to undertake an investigation into specific financial arrangements created by your predecessor Tony Blair prior to his departure from office and subsequent to it, to establish whether his failure to register these with the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) constitutes a breach of the Ministerial Code, as would appear to be the case."

Blair has vehemently denied the allegations, insisting the ventures are purely 'administrative' and do not fall under business disclosure rules.

"Windrush is simply an administrative vehicle established in order to allow Mr Blair's office sensibly to administer his different projects, in accordance with relevant regulations and company law in the UK," a spokesman for Blair said.

According to the report, Windrush Ventures No 3 has an income of millions of pounds including large sums for philanthropic and charitable works.

The money that has come from a variety of sources, including a 2.4 million dollars from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, intended for Sierra Leone and a further 1.5 million pounds for Rwanda from the Gatsby Charitable Foundation set up by Lord Sainsbury.

The accounts of Windrush Ventures No 2, a limited liability partnership, show it received 6,436,000 pounds "in connection with management services that it has provided to Windrush Ventures No 3", the report adds. (ANI)