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The government’s trade minister was paid around £500,000 last year by an investment firm he co-founded. The investment firm continues to hold stakes in the company popularly known as the “Russian Google” despite the war in Ukraine.
Dominique Johnson – Lord Johnson of Lainston was sidelined when he took office last October and was part of a £6.49m payment to the partners and directors of Somerset Capital Management LLP (SCM) last March. received £471,842 in part. .
At the time of payment, he owned approximately 15% of SCM.
Sir Johnson renounced his stake in SCM when he resigned last November.
The latest account signed by Sir Johnson covers the year to the end of March 2022 and includes the first five weeks of the war in Ukraine.
His government background describes the company as a “pension fund manager for developing countries,” but the group also continues to have stakes in Yandex, Russia’s leading internet search engine.
He co-founded SCM in 2007 with Tory MP and former business secretary Jacob Rees Mogg.
Mr Rees-Mogg is understood to have earned around £400,000 from a recent payment from SCM in return for holding an approximately 12% stake in the company.
In October last year, a source close to Mr Reese Mogg and Sir Johnson said: Me that both men were set to sell their shares in the company.
Rees-Mogg’s advisers declined to comment on whether the former minister still owns his shares.
A Department of International Trade (DIT) spokeswoman said:
“Lord Johnson, upon assuming his position as Minister, has renounced the financial assets of Somerset Capital to avoid any actual or perceived conflict of interest.”
Sir Johnson received his first government appointment on 2nd October, becoming joint Secretary of State for the DIT and Cabinet Office. He was then appointed Minister of State (Minister of Investment) at the Ministry of International Trade on 24 November.
Documents filed with the Companies House show that he resigned from SCM’s board of directors on November 23.
Sir Johnson also served as Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party from 2017 to 2019.
Somerset’s first purchase of Yandex shares was in the first three months of 2015, with Rhys Mogg as an advisor and Johnson as chief executive officer of the company.
Rhys-Mogg, who received around £180,000 a year as a part-time adviser to Somerset working 30 hours a month between 2009 and 2019, said the firm had not been involved in investment decisions since 2009.
Rees-Mogg is still a publicly traded company as a director of SCM. Although he is no longer involved in Somerset’s investment decisions, he holds shares and thus benefits from dividends.
Somerset has reduced its stake in Yandex since the invasion of Ukraine, but still holds about 2.5 million shares in the group, representing a 0.69% stake in the £6 billion Russian company.
Yandex’s Dutch-registered holding company said last month it plans to sell most of its ownership and control of Yandex Group, including its main revenue-generating businesses.
Alexei Kudrin, a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has joined the company as a corporate development advisor.
Yandex has tried to strike a balance between Western investors and the Kremlin. The company sold its news feed and homepage to state rival VK earlier this year.
There is no indication that Sir Johnson or Mr Reese Mogg broke the Ministerial Act.