Peer Claims 'Foundation X' Will Pay UK Debt
Ruth Barnett, Sky News Online
Lord James of Blackheath said the group, which he refuses to name and refers to only as "Foundation X", is willing to hand over the cash without strings attached.
And the Conservative peer is accusing the Government of squandering the chance to rescue the UK economy and save hundreds of thousands of jobs.
He says they have dismissed him as an ageing maverick.
Lord James, who denies he is the victim of an elaborate hoax, first revealed the details to stunned peers in the House of Lords on Monday night.
"The British Government can have the entire independent management and control of it - Foundation X does not want anything to do with it," he told them.
"There will be no interest charged and... it will be prepared to put up money for funding hospitals, schools, the building of Crossrail immediately with £17bn transfer by Christmas if requested."
Lord James speaking to Sky NewsIf it's all wrong you can blame it on this maverick ageing old-codger peer and if I'm right, you get all the great glory of this happening for the British economy."
He said a phone call from a senior minister to the foundation's chairman was all it would take "and then we can get into business".
Bloggers including Charles Stross spotted his remarks, prompting speculation on the internet that the peer, who is in his 70s, has been taken in by a scam.
Lord James told Sky News he was approached nearly six months ago and asked to help broker a deal which could be bigger than the Marshall Plan, the US fund which helped Europe recover from the Second World War.
He said he has told the Government: "If it's all wrong you can blame it on this maverick ageing old-codger peer and if I'm right, you get all the great glory of this happening for the British economy."
The peer refused to reveal the identity of the organisation but described them as having a "massive supranational accumulation of funds" which they have built up over 100 years.
They are motivated by a desire to rescue the global economy - and their savings - from growing instability and have provided a list of referees which includes the "most high-profile people on the world stage," he said.
In his extraordinary statement to the Lords, the peer said he believed the money was not tainted by criminality because he had had years of experience dealing with cash from criminal groups.
"My biggest terrorist client was the IRA and I am pleased to say that I managed to write off more than £1bn of its money," he said.
But he told Sky News he had not intended to imply he had done anything improper as he had been working for the Bank of England, clearing up companies infiltrated by the IRA.
"I'm not a money launderer, I was on the side of the angels," he added.
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Nov. 4, 2010