Police make arrest in LDA grant probe

Police have arrested a man who ran a scheme linked to London mayor’s aide Lee
Jasper, on suspicion of money laundering in connection with a fraud probe into
six organisations which have received cash grants from the
London Development Agency.

Greg Nowell was being questioned at Belgravia police station. Documents were
seized at two other homes, in Tottenham and Croydon. Nowell ran the Green Badge
Taxi School, a project in Clapham, purporting to offer courses in the
‘knowledge’ for would-be taxi drivers from ethnic minorities, the Evening
Standard reports.

The other five companies under investigation are Brixton Base, Diversity
International, Ethnic Mutual, The European Federation of Black Women Business
Owners and the Deshbangla Foundation.

‘If people stole money from the LDA, we want them to go to prison,’
Livingstone said today at a news conference. ‘You have to put it in the context
of the many thousands of grants the LDA has made.’

Further reading:

Mayor’s aide falls on his sword

Mayor suspends aide at centre of LDA scandal

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story in the Evening Standard