Arron Banks (pictured with wife Catya) had three meetings with Russian ambassador Alexander Yakovenko,
Millionaire Brexit backer Arron Banks is facing fresh questions about why he took a trip to Russia in the run up to the Brexit vote amid claims he may have been targeted by the Kremlin.
The insurance tycoon – who bankrolled Leave.EUs campaign – made a trip to Russia in February 2016 – shortly before the Brexit referendum.
Mr Banks, a close friend of Nigel Farage, had reportedly been in talks with the Russian ambassador Alexander Yakovenko to invest in a Goldmine and invited out to Moscow for talks.
He visited the city in February – but insists this was not for business talks but just on a family holiday with his Russian wife Catya and mother-in-law Olga
Mr Banks told The Sunday Times they visited the world famous Hermitage museum on the trip – but that is actually in St Petersburg.
While he also claimed the family went on a river boat cruise, but these do not run in either of the cities in February because of the winter ice.
The discrepancies raise further questions about Mr Banks’ ties with Russia and exactly what he was doing in the country.
Mr Banks did not immediately get back to MailOnline regarding these latest claims.
But he said the emails containing the explosive revelations were hacked and branded the furore around them a ‘witch hunt’ driven by anti-Russian feeling.
He has previously been photographed with his wife mother-in-law Olga at her 65th birthday celebration in Yekaterinburg, in Russia in 2015.
The insurance tycoon turned political activist set the scene for a parliamentary showdown on the affair by vowing to give evidence to a select committee hearing into fake news on the mater on Tuesday.
The trip has come under the spotlight as sensational allegations raising questions about the Kremlin’s attempts to meddle in Brexit were exposed after a series of emails were made public.
In the cache, seen by the Sunday newspaper, Mr Banks and his colleague at Leave.EU Andy Wigmore are revealed to have held a series of previously undisclosed meetings with the Russian ambassador.
Arron Banks with his wife Catya (in the middle) and mother-in-law Olga on Olga’s 65th birthday celebration in Yekaterinburg, in Russia in 2015. The trio are said to have visited Moscow for a family trip in February 2016
They were reportedly introduced to Mr Yakovenko by Alexander Udod – a suspected Russian spy who has been expelled from Britain in the wake of the Salisbury poison outrage, it was reported.
Who is Arron Banks – the man who ‘bought Brexit’?
The multi-millionaire (pictured) has donated millions to Ukip and in 2016 he backed Mr Farage’s Leave.EU group
Arron Banks has been dubbed ‘the man who bought Brexit’ for the way he bankrolled Nigel Farage’s campaign to leave the EU.
The multi-millionaire has donated millions to Ukip and in 2016 he backed Mr Farage’s Leave.EU group.
He was pictured alongside Donald Trump when the President met Nigel Farage in New York just days after his shock US election victory.
But now he is facing calls to explain a series of meetings with Russian embassy officials.
Mr Banks, 52, made his fortune from the Bristol-based insurance broker Brightside which he founded. He then went on to found another firm, GoSkippy, and is now said to be worth £100million.
He is married to Russian Ekaterina Paderina and has five children.
Originally a modest Tory donor, in 2014 he defected to Ukip in desperation at David Cameron’s stance on Europe.
William Hague made the mistake of describing Mr Banks as ‘somebody we haven’t heard of’ following his defection – prompting him to up his donation to £1million.
He said: ‘I woke up this morning intending to give £100,000 to UKIP – then I heard Mr Hague’s comment about me being a Mr Nobody. So in light of that I have decided to give £1million.’
In his book on the referendum, The Bad Boys of Brexit, Mr Banks claimed to have had only one meeting with Mr Putin’s envoy, in September 2015.
But the pair exchanged also had lunch with the ambassador three days after they and Nigel Farage visited US president-elect Donald Trump in New York in November 2016 after his shock election.
Mr Banks admitted he handed over phone numbers for members of Trump’s transition team to Russian officials on his return, according to the newspaper.
But he said they also fully briefed US officials at the CIA about their contacts with the Russians.
Mr Yakovenko also reportedly proposed a business deal for the two men involved in the consolidation into one company of several goldmines in Russia.
The two men were apparently told the goldmine deal would only go ahead if they visited Moscow.
Mr Wigmore told the newspaper: ‘The difficulties of pulling this all together quickly became apparent and it would only work if we were prepared to visit Moscow’.
He said he ‘reached out’ to the Russian ambassador for details but the proposals fizzled out it became ‘a low priority and we did not pursue the project. We did not go to Moscow.’
Yet one email seen by the paper indicates Mr Banks had to cancel an interview in Britain because he had been delayed in Moscow.
Mr Banks said he went on a family trip to the city, adding: ‘No meetings were had with anyone, we visited the Hermitage Museum and went on a river cruise.’
And he also dismissed suggestions the meetings he held with Mr Yakovenko were of major significance.
He said: ‘Once we had met the Russian ambassador he started to invite us to stuff, which I never went to.
‘Andy [Wigmore] went to one with a string quartet and all sorts of people started to invite us to stuff. We didn’t profit from any business deals because I never pursued anything.’
On referendum day in June 2016 they invited Mr Yakovenko andMr Udod to a drinks party hosted by Mr Banks in Notting Hill, west London.
Mr Wigmore claims to have seen Mr Yakovenko only only once more after the lunch after the Donald Trump party – in his role as a Belize diplomat at a Christmas event with my wife’.
Cabinet Minister David Lidington said the allegations are very serious and should be looked at.
Banks and Nigel Farage meet President Donald Trump at the Trump Tower in NYC
He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: ‘Clearly they are serious allegations, but we have in thus country a system where there are independant agencies to look at instances of malpractice.
‘Quite rightly ministers cant initiate or stop any such investigations.
‘So I would say those who have got the evidence, let the take it to the relevant authorities and let them be looked into.’
But Mr Banks has branded the furore over the allegations a ‘witch hunt’ driven by anti-Russian feeling.
Mr Banks and Mr Wigmore have set the stage for an electrifying Commons showdown about the subject on Tuesday after claiming details of the meetings were hacked.
They have vowed to give evidence to committee chairman Damian Collins aboutthe exposive claims.
Mr Banks wrote on Twitter that the messages had been ‘stolen’ and added: ‘At this rate I’ll be attending @DamianCollins on Tuesday as planned!’.
He had previously vowed not to attend the hearing, branding the committee a ‘partisan witch hunt’ and accusing it of ‘collusion’ with pro-EU campaigners.
Mr Wigmore also tweeted Mr Collins yesterday: ‘Fill your boots and all from #hacked emails, surely not legal? See you on Tuesday.’ He tagged Mr Banks in the message.
Last night Mr Collins told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The concern we have is there seems to be evidence of very close contact between Leave.EU and the Russian embassy during the referendum campaign, far greater than they have previously admitted to.
‘We will be questioning Mr Banks and Mr Wigmore about this.’
The Government and the intelligence services are likely to face calls to investigate the new evidence of contact between the Brexiteers and Putin’s officials.
Just last month MI5 chief Andrew Parker branded the Russian government the ‘chief propagandist’ in a campaign to undermine Western democracies.
Mr Banks, who is married to a Russian, has previously claimed his only contact with Russian officials came at a Ukip conference in 2015 when a man called ‘Oleg’ invited him to a private meeting with the ambassador.
‘Our host wanted the inside track on the Brexit campaign and grilled us on the potential implications of an Out vote for Europe,’ Mr Banks wrote in his book, Bad Boys Of Brexit.
He said ‘diplomatic relations improved’ when the Russians produced a bottle of vodka that had been ‘made for Stalin personally’.
The new claims of closer contact between Mr Banks and Russia will raise fears among Leave backers that Brexit will be discredited in a welter of sleaze allegations.
Banks previously claimed to have had only a ‘boozy lunch’ with Russian Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko (pictured)
The Government and the intelligence services are likely to face calls to investigate the new evidence of contact between the Brexiteers and Putin’s (pictured) officials
Last week MPs took the rare decision to vote to order Dominic Cummings – mastermind of the official Vote Leave campaign – to give evidence to the same committee over claims that he broke election spending rules.
Mr Cummings, former confidant of Cabinet Brexiteer Michael Gove, had said he would not attend. There have also been claims that Brexit campaigners misused personal data obtained via controversial firm Cambridge Analytica in order to target voters.
The Electoral Commission watchdog is already investigating whether or not Mr Banks breached finance rules over Brexit campaign donations.