Amersi Sues BBC Over Corruption Coverage That Ended Title Bid

Mohamed Amersi, a donor to the Conservative Party and Reform UK, has sued the BBC over a 2021 Panorama episode and a related online article. He alleges the coverage damaged his reputation so severely that he lost the opportunity to receive a knighthood and a peerage. The high court heard these claims as his defamation trial began on Wednesday.

The broadcaster’s 2021 report, titled Pandora Papers: Political Donors Exposed, suggested strong grounds to suspect Amersi was involved in corrupt deals while working for the Swedish telecoms company Telia. His barrister, Oliver Powell, told the court the allegations struck at the core of his client's integrity. Powell described the resulting harm as very serious.

Amersi’s witness statement details the personal and financial fallout from the publicity. He stated that the scandal forced him to step back from his educational philanthropy. He also reported that Union Bancaire Privée of Switzerland closed his accounts. Amersi donated £25,000 to Reform UK last year after previously giving hundreds of thousands of pounds to the Conservatives.

The BBC is defending the material on grounds of truth and public interest. In its written defense, the broadcaster argued that there is no evidence Amersi suffered serious reputational harm. It noted that no corroborating documentary evidence supporting his assertions had been disclosed and suggested his statement contained factual inaccuracies.

The legal dispute centers on a $220 million payment made in January 2010 to a Gibraltar company named Takilant. The BBC argues that the real owner of Takilant was Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbekistan’s president. Amersi maintains that neither he nor Telia knew of this connection. He argues there was no basis for the claim that he should have known.

Powell challenged the BBC’s reliance on Telia’s 2017 deferred prosecution agreement with the US Department of Justice. He characterized those admissions as untested hearsay that deserve little weight. He also cited a legal review commissioned by Telia which found no certainty regarding a legal or financial connection between Takilant and Karimova.

Amersi describes his time in Uzbekistan as limited, spanning fewer than six months across December 2009 and 2010. He claims the BBC offered only generalized suspicion rather than an evidential foundation for its claims. He seeks damages, including aggravated damages, and an injunction to stop further publication of the defamatory statements.

The trial continues with Amersi scheduled to give evidence for six days starting November 11. The court will weigh his claims of lost titles against the BBC’s assertion that its reporting was justified by the public interest.