Lord James: Foundation X not a scam

A mysterious organisation that claims to have billions of pounds to invest in the UK economy is not an attempted scam, according to a peer with extensive City experience.

Lord James of Blackheath told ZDNet UK on Thursday that the organisation, which Lord James has dubbed 'Foundation X', to his knowledge is a viable organisation.

"I'm convinced it's bona fide," said James. "I've been working on this case for five months, and I've not found a single reason [to think otherwise]."

Blogger Hopi Sen suggested in a blog post on Wednesday that the mysterious organisation could be the "United Nations Office of International Treasury Control" (UNOITC), which claims to be a sovereign entity formed after the Second World War.

James told ZDNet UK that he had not been approached by the UNOITC, and that there were no links between Foundation X and UNOITC.

James, who was a respected troubleshooter in the City, made a speech to Parliament on Monday. James said that a mysterious organisation was willing to put £5bn into the UK economy, plus an extra £17bn for hospitals, schools, and Crossrail, with no strings attached.

"The problem is, the government has not carried through the checks that I want them to do and open up lines of enquiry," James told ZDNet UK.

James also said in Parliament that he had been appointed by the Bank of England to "deal with problems" caused by the laundering of terrorist money.

"I have had one of the biggest experiences in the laundering of terrorist money and funny money that anyone has had in the City," James said in Parliament. "I have handled billions of pounds of terrorist money. 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. I have also had extensive connections with north African terrorists, but that was of a far nastier nature, and I do not want to talk about that because it is still a security issue."

James told ZDNet UK on Thursday that he had been brought into five companies between 1989 and 1997/98 at the direction of the Bank of England. James was to run the companies down, as they had been identified as conduits for IRA funds.

"The IRA had five companies completely ruined," said James. "They had built the companies up as pensions funds."

James' express instructions were to run the companies down and liquidise the assets, he said.

"I'm a money washer, not a money launderer," said James.