London – A businessman has complained to the U.S. Department of Justice about gifts a Colorado billionaire gave to British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, a news report said Thursday.
A parliamentary ethics panel gave Prescott a mild rebuke in July, saying he should have immediately disclosed his stay at the ranch of Philip Anschutz, the American tycoon who is bidding to open a casino at London’s Millennium Dome site.
But it said Prescott had “acted correctly” in belatedly declaring the visit, and recommended no further action.
The Times newspaper said George Bathurst, a businessman based in Windsor, outside London, had reported the hospitality and gifts Anschutz gave Prescott to the Justice Department under laws banning U.S. businesses from attempting to bribe foreign officials.
A call by The Associated Press to a number listed as Bathurst’s went unanswered Thursday.
Prescott was widely criticized for initially failing to declare his stay with Anschutz, who also gave him a cowboy outfit.
He says he has met twice a year with the oil, media and transport billionaire who has taken over the vast Millennium Dome, an enormous exhibition space built for the 2000 New Year’s celebrations. Anschutz is seeking a license to operate a casino there, but Prescott says the two never discussed that issue in their meetings.
“We do not normally respond to personal and political attacks nor do we intend to start doing so,” said Anschutz spokesman Jim Monaghan on Friday. “However, in this instance, the accusations by Mr. Bathurst — who we read in the British media is the head of a nursery security company — is so far beyond the pale we must call it for what it is: simply bizarre. That’s why Scotland Yard wouldn’t even investigate his accusations and why people in Britain don’t take him seriously.”
