We received a letter from the Legatum Group yesterday threatening ‘legal proceedings’ in relation to our piece published on February 14th about Christopher Chandler and the Legatum Institute.
We received a letter from the Legatum Group yesterday threatening ‘legal proceedings’ in relation to our piece published on February 14th about Christopher Chandler and the Legatum Institute.
We accepted that there were some inaccuracies in the original piece and have been willing to make a series of corrections which are summarised below. We received a subsequent email from the Legatum Group on Friday afternoon demanding that we remove the article.
Since we do not have the resources to mount a legal defence, we have removed the article from our website.
For the record:
The original article stated that Mr Chandler ‘has just applied for…EU citizenship’. We accept that he applied Matlese citizenship before the EU referendum.
The original article stated that the Legatum Institute was ‘his’ think tank. We accept that while Mr Chandler is a partner of the Legatum Group – which founded The Legatum Institute Foundation – and is a donor to the organisation, he does not have a controlling interest.
The original article said that the Legatum Institute ‘provided the ideological basis for Brexit’. We accept that Legatum did not take a stance on Brexit before the referendum. Since the EU referendum, the Legatum Institute has advocated leaving the Single Market and Customs Union.
The original article stated the organisation ‘is being investigated by the Charity Commission over links to Russia’. We accept that this is not the case. It has been reported in The Times (here) that the Institute is being assessed by the Charity Commission as to whether the charity’s trustees are running it in line with its objectives. Separately, it has been reported in The Times (here) that the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Commission will ‘scope’ the institute as part of preparations for investigation into Russian activities against the UK.
The original article stated that the think tank was ‘officially based in the Cayman Islands’. We accept that the Legatum Institute Foundation (the think tank) is a UK registered charity and a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in the UK. (The Legatum Institute, a separate organisation, has its overseas company address in the Cayman Islands).
2 Responses to “Why we’ve taken down an article on Christopher Chandler and the Legatum Institute”
Dave Roberts
It’s called checking and it’s not rocket science. Fire off a series of email to whoever and let them do the checking. If they don’t reply that’s their problem and if they do check the reply, there might be more there.
Richard North
This one is still up … http://www.eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=86556