Businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri’s stepfather John Jendrezejewski (above), has defended friendship with Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson did not have an affair with a pole-dancing ex-model whose business won thousands in public grants, her family insisted today – as they told friends: ‘He sponsored her. He didn’t screw her.’
The Prime Minister has been accused of a potential conflict of interest while London Mayor as tech entrepreneur Jennifer Arcuri received four government grants and went with him on three overseas trade missions.
Mr Johnson, 55, was a ‘regular visitor’ to the London apartment of the glamorous blonde, who described the politician as ‘one of her best friends.’
But Ms Arcuri’s parents say that their daughter has denied claims of impropriety in her friendship with Mr Johnson.
Speaking from their home in Louisville, Kentucky, her mother Christine, 61 and stepfather John Jendrezejewski, 71, told DailyMail.com: ‘She is doing okay. She was upset and stressed and texted us to let us know it’s just not true.
‘But we knew that already. She’s smart and she’s strong and she’s a businesswoman.’
Miss Arcuri (pictured) became friends with the then-Mayor of London in 2013 when she was living in London with Mr Johnson becoming a regular visitor to her apartment in the capital
Ms Arcuri, a former model, set up a tech company that was in receipt of four grants totalling £126,000 from the British government and accompanied Mr Johnson on three foreign trips
Mr Johnson commands six-figure sums for speaking engagements, but agreed to talk at several technology events hosted by Miss Arcuri (pictured together in 2013) prompting speculation about the nature of their friendship
Mr Johnson refused to answer questions over this relationship with Arcuri yesterday – insisting only that funds handed out while he was mayor were awarded with ‘utter propriety’.
Miss Arcuri received more than £26,000 of public money for her tech firms, and today a fourth grant can be revealed.
One of her firms, Innotech, shared a £12,447 City Hall handout to several companies to help them fund a trade mission to South Africa in 2013.
Arcuri’s husband, Matthew Hickey, with whom she has a young daughter, said that the cyber security company he runs with Arcuri ‘Hacker House’ hadn’t yet received the full grant from the British government.
He also blasted rumors of any affair and slammed them as ‘baseless.’
And a close friend of Arcuri told DailyMail.com that the description of her as an ‘ex-model’ is ‘bull***t.’
‘It’s nonsense. We have no idea where that came from. Jennifer was never a model,’ said the source.
‘She did a little bit of modelling school when she was at High School but she was never signed and working as model.
‘She was an actress for a while and these days she’s a speaker so that really helped with her being up on stage. She’s a smart girl.’
Pictures of a smiling Arcuri pole dancing coquettishly in a beer wench’s peasant blouse and tiny gingham skirt may do little to foster her image as a businesswoman of depth, but the graduate of the University of Wisconsin received an MBA from New York’s Pace University, Lubin School of Business, in 2008.
In 2011, after four years working at a sushi restaurant in Morro Bay, California, the then 26-year-old decided to go back to school and gained a global MBA at Hult International Business School in London.
According to the source, after that, ‘she had her international MBA, she wanted to use it and she wanted to use it in the UK.’
Ms Arcuri reportedly met Mr Johnson, some 21 years her senior, when she volunteered on his re-election campaign in 2012 and in term, he supported her business venture, says a source
Ms Arcuri, a graduate from the University of Wisconsin, is pictured smiling pole dancing in a beer wench’s blouse. She reportedly had a dancing pole installed at her £2,600 per month flat
Arcuri reportedly met Mr Johnson, some 21 years her senior, when she volunteered on his re-election campaign in 2012 and, according to the source, ‘He just embraced her as Mayor and accepted and supported her.
‘He sponsored her in her entrepreneurial efforts. He supported her and they became friends.’
Indeed Mr Johnson’s support was key in Arcuri securing the necessary funds to start her business, Innotech.
The company that aimed to ‘bridge the gap between legislation and innovative technology,’ launched in July 2013 and ten thousand pounds of the money that made that launch possible came from an organization for which Mr Johnson was responsible.
At the same time Mr Johnson attended numerous events that she arranged to promote the business and reportedly became a regular visitor to the then 28-year-old American’s apartment in the East End of London.
Arcuri was also granted privileged access to three overseas trade missions led by Johnson despite the fact that her business did not meet the criteria for any of the three trips she attended in one year.
According to The Sunday Times investigation, which exposed Johnson’s potential conflict of interests, initial decisions rejecting her from two of those missions were overturned following the ‘intervention,’ by Johnson and his mayoral team.
It quoted an internal email revealing how she took part in a New York trade mission after she discussed the issue with the then London mayor who was happy for her to participate.
As mayor, Mr Johnson was required to follow the Greater London Authority’s code of conduct to ‘declare any private interests relating to their public duties and to take steps to resolve any conflicts arising in a way that protects the public interest.’
Speaking on Monday the source close to Arcuri dismissed the suggestion of any impropriety or preferential treatment during any of her trips with Mr Johnson.
While Johnson was Mayor of London, Arcuri was also granted privileged access to three overseas trade missions led by the future Prime Minister despite the fact that her business did not meet the criteria for any of the trips she attended in one year after Johnson intervened
Johnson and Ms Arcuri share a joke at a technology events organised by the businesswoman
They said, ‘Yes she travelled with him, but it wasn’t as if she was sitting next to him on the plane or the bus or whatever. It wasn’t one on one.’
Indeed, Arcuri’s reinvention from California sushi restaurant shifter to the self-proclaimed, ‘cyber security ethical hacker guru’ of today has been nothing short of dramatic.
In 2016 she founded Hacker House which employs so-called ‘ethical hackers’ to teach cyber-attack simulations to students.
That same year, on Christmas Day she announced her engagement to Hickey tweeting her acceptance along with an image of the substantial solitaire rock on her finger.
In 2017 Arcuri was ranked #17 in ComputerWeekly.com’s Top 50 Most Influential Women in Tech
But just last year, under Mr Johnson’s continued patronage, one of her companies obtained a further £100,000 grant from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMA). It is currently the subject of an inquiry.