Warburton does not appear to have
been paid for such advice. Yet four weeks
later, on August 22, he received a
£150,000 loan, which he withdrew from
Castlebrook Associates Ltd. This opaque
entity is registered in the Seychelles and
owned by Joukovski’s family trust —
something only known because it was
disclosed in court documents last year
relating to a separate alleged cryptocur-
rency fraud involving the Russian busi-
nessman. There has no judgment on that
claim, which Joukovski is defending.
According to the small print, Warbur-
ton would pay interest of 8 per cent, ris-
ing to 12 per cent in the event of non-pay-
ment, before repaying the loan in full a
year later. Joukovski was not required to
monitor or verify the use of loan, which
was also unsecured.
It is unclear why Joukovski would have
agreed to such terms. A source has
strongly denied there was any quid pro
quo in relation to the loan. But in any
event it is clear that the pair’s relation-
ship had the potential for significant
mutual benefit more generally.
Warburton did nothing to distance
himself from appearance that he was
there to help with the FCA, as long as he
stood to gain something — whether pay-
ment, which Warburton mentioned in
one email, or something more subtle.
PROGRESS ON ALL FRONTS
In January 2018, Warburton wrote to Jou-
kovski saying he was “conscious that
things have been a little quiet” on the FCA
front, but assuring him: “I have a meeting
on Wednesday with the people who have
been looking at your FCA position for me
(on a redacted no names basis).” Warbur-
ton then said he needed to introduce Jou-
kovski to somebody: Rodney Baker-Bates, a distinguished financier who had
served as deputy chairman of the Co-op
bank and a governor of the Royal Shake-
speare Company. Baker-Bates, 77, is also
Harriet Warburton’s uncle, and open to
directorships and consultancy roles.
Signing off the email, he said: “I should
mention that the prime minister was kind
enough to promote me a couple of weeks
ago to parliamentary private secretary to
the Department for Education, so am
now very much on the inside of Govern-
ment, which is terrific!”
Joukovski responded expressing his
warm congratulations, confirming he
would “love” to meet soon. Warburton
duly followed up, sending Joukovski a
copy of Baker-Bates’s CV and proposing
that they all meet together in parliament
to discuss next steps. MPs are forbidden
from using the Palace of Westminster for
private business purposes, but Warbur-ton said he would “almost certainly be
trapped inside the parliamentary estate”
on the date of a proposed meeting, so
advised that they meet in the peers’ din-
ing room, where food and wine are subsi-
dised by the taxpayer.
Progress followed on all fronts: the
regulator, the role, the Airbnb.
On 19 February 2018, Warburton told
Joukovski he had finally got an update on
the FCA status. Delivering would be
“tough, but not necessarily impossible”.
He said he would “obviously” need char-
acter references from some upstanding
citizens, such as himself and Baker-Bates.
Joukovski approved of this plan and
later agreed to hire Baker-Bates to a role
at Dolfin, his financial advice company
specialising in “golden visas”, on a salary
friends of the Russian say was £160,000.
Then, in July 2018, Harriet, Warbur-
ton’s wife, posted pictures of the newly
renovated Airbnb. She attached a photo-
graph of a bottle of champagne on ice.
LIVING RECKLESSLY
Soon Warburton’s luck started to run out.
Despite his claims to enjoy insider status
in government, his time as PPS was not a
success. He was moved from education to
a similar role at the Department for Inter-
national Development, then shuffled out
altogether. With his wife running his con-
stituency office, he allegedly started to
abuse cocaine and spend time with
younger women, some them parliamen-
tary researchers. Two later accused him
of coercing them into returning to his flat
and touching them against their will.
Then there was the property itself:
despite its promise, it did not patch the
hole in Warburton’s finances. He had
agreed to repay his six-figure loan in full
by November 24, 2018, but the deadline
came and went with the full amount still
outstanding. He contacted Joukovski
requesting a holiday from repayment the
following year. The request was granted.The pandemic compounded their
woes: in October 2021, his wife
announced they had sold the Airbnb and
were selling everything off.
To this day, it is unclear who repaid the
loan or precisely why. Two sources insist
it was repaid in March this year. A friend
of Joukovski claimed it was settled at the
end of 2019, but did not provide evidence
supporting this assertion.
Warburton continued to steadfastly
support his friend. Without regulatory
approval, Joukovski remained unable to
provide certain forms of financial advice
or oversee certain transactions at his
firm, Dolfin, which had run into trouble.
It was in this context that Warburton
wrote to the regulator backing him. It was
almost a word-for-word replica of a draft
prepared by a partner specialising in
financial markets at a powerful law firm.
It did not work. The same month, the
FCA imposed a ban on trading at Dolfin to
“protect the integrity of the UK financial
system”. Dolfin has since been forced
into administration. Warburton’s future
remains unclear. The MP has not pro-
vided any account of his financial deal-
ings or why he did not disclose them.
Last night, an FCA spokeswoman said:
“As an independent regulator, we take
decisions about the firms we regulate
based solely on our objectives and the
information and intelligence we have.”
Joukovski said the conduct that led to
the FCA’s 2014 assessment was due to
oversight as a result of personal difficul-
ties — although the regulator did not
accept his explanation as sufficient. The
FCA had said it was minded not to recom-
mend that he was a fit and proper person,
but Joukovski withdrew his application
before any final decision. Warburton’s
advice included providing “a more
detailed and precise explanation of the
historic anomalies” and demonstrating
“full and unconditional compliance” in
his current systems and procedures.I’m very
much
on the
insideFirm
sought
to cover
tracksPupils told to sit exams even if
they have symptoms of Covid
Teenagers with mild
coronavirus symptoms such
as a sore throat or runny nose
should come into schools to
sit their public exams this
summer, according to the
latest official advice. They
have been told to stay at
home, however, if they have a
high temperature or test
positive for the virus on the
day of a GCSE or A-level.
The guidance from the
Joint Council for
Qualifications, the body
representing all exam boards,
has been greeted with
concern by head teachers
who fear that Covid
outbreaks will spread in
schools if infected students sit
in exam halls with others.
GCSE and A-level exams
are being held for the first
time in three years. The
Department for Education
said 179,000 children were
still off school because of the
virus on March 31.
Teaching unions are calling
for free lateral flow tests to be
brought back while exams are
taking place.
Practical assessments in
creative subjects were held
last week and exams will nowSian Griffiths
Education Editorrun until June. The present
Covid outbreak is expected to
have peaked by then.
Julie McCulloch, director of
policy at the Association of
School and College Leaders,
said: “The [new] guidance
quotes UK Health Security
Agency guidance which says
that students with mild
symptoms can come in while
those with a high
temperature are advised to
stay at home.
“The fact that there are no
plans to make Covid tests
available means that it will be
impossible to tell whether or
not those symptoms are
actually Covid. As a result, we
may end up with students
who have Covid and are
infectious in exam halls
transmitting the illness.”
Teachers will tomorrow
warn that pupils have not had
time to cover all of the
syllabus because of
disruption to lessons.
According to a survey to be
published by the National
Education Union, the biggest
teaching union, at the start of
its annual conference, half of
the 2,000 teachers polled
said their pupils had been
taught only 70 per cent of the
GCSE and A-level material
they will be examined on.Some schools say they are
handling multiple requests
from pupils asking for extra
time as well as the chance to
sit exams in a private room
because they are anxious
about sitting public exams,
which they have never done
before.
For the past two years,
GCSE and A-level grades have
been awarded based on
teachers’ marks for work
completed in class.
Pepe Di’lasio, head teacher
of Wales High School near
Rotherham, South Yorkshire,
said 40 out of 350 pupils
sitting public exams at his
school had asked to sit in a
room on their own, double
the normal level, “because of
the anxiety levels the pupils
face”.
He said he also expected
more requests for pupils to
start exams up to half an hour
earlier and had noticed an
increase in self harm and
misbehaviour because
“children are worried they
will do badly in their exams”.
The school is using extra
counsellors to help children
cope and is opening for
revision sessions over the
Easter holidays.
To add to the chaos, there
is a shortage of invigilators tosupervise exams, according
to the National Association of
Exams Officers. More than
nine out of ten exams officers
are concerned about not
having enough invigilators for
this summer’s exams,
according to a survey of
7,000 schools.
Some schools, such as
Wales High School, are
recruiting students from local
universities to supervise
exams because of a
reluctance by retired head
teachers, who normally do
the job, to turn up for fear of
catching Covid.
Invigilators are having to
be employed who are “not
ideally suited to the role”, the
association said, which raises
the risk of pupils getting away
with cheating.
Students who miss exams
because of illness will be
eligible for “special
consideration”. If they have
done one paper in a subject
and miss the other due to
sickness, then they can be
awarded a grade based on
marks in the module they sat.
First and last exams will be
spaced ten days apart to
maximise a child’s chance of
being able to sit at least one if
they catch Covid.
@siangriffithsRoman Joukovski
at a polo match
with Prince
Harry, far left;
Warburton, right,
and his letter to
the FCA
recommending
Joukovski, leftThe Sunday Times April 10, 2022 13
£
,
000
The amount
earned by David
Warburton’s wife,
Harriet, as his
assistant and
press officer