Liz Truss’s most senior adviser has been interviewed by FBI agents about an alleged criminal plot to bribe an American politician and influe
Today it can be revealed that he was involved in an alleged conspiracy to subvert the democracy of Puerto Rico, the US-administered Caribbean island. Prosecutors have said those responsible “struck a blow to the heart of our democracy” and “eroded the confidence of our citizens in their institutions of governance”.
Fullbrook, 60, was made a formal subject of a US Department of Justice (DoJ) and FBI investigation this year, meaning that federal investigators were interested in his conduct. In April the FBI asked Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Metropolitan Police to help secure his attendance at a formal interview. He agreed after being approached by Scotland Yard. His company was subpoenaed and forced to hand over hundreds of sensitive emails. Fullbrook has since signed an agreement with the FBI and is co-operating as a witness.
The FBI inquiry centres on an alleged bribe by Julio Herrera Velutini, an international banker and Conservative Party donor based in Mayfair. Velutini, 50, allegedly promised Puerto Rico’s governor, Wanda Vázquez Garced, $300,000 for her re-election campaign in 2020 on condition that she sacked the head of the island’s financial regulator. It had started to examine suspicious transactions at Bancredito, the bank Velutini owns. According to a criminal indictment, the governor agreed.
