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블레어 전총리, 유아이에너지서 거액받아 [영국 텔리그래프지]

Tony Blair takes on jobs advising South Korean oil firm and Kuwaiti Government

Tony Blair has been paid to advise a South Korean oil company and the Kuwaiti Government.

원문보기 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/7473553/Tony-Blair-takes-on-jobs-advising-South-Korean-oil-firm-and-Kuwaiti-Government.html

The existence of the arrangements were kept secret for the past 18 months and only disclosed this week by a committee which vets former ministers’ business interests.

Mr Blair is also an adviser to JP Morgan Chase, the US investment bank, and Zurich Financial Services, a Swiss firm.

However the existence of the deal was then kept secret since then because of “market sensitivities”, the committee said.

It was claimed yesterday that Mr Blair had asked the committee on two occasions not to disclose details of the Korean deal, and had to be chased by the committee for updates.

Details of the arrangement - identifying Mr Blair's job as "advice to a consortium of investors led by the UI Energy Corporation” – were only eventually published on the committee's website this week.

A spokesman for Mr Blair said the request to keep the project secret had been made by the Koreans, not by the former Prime Minister.

He said: "Mr Blair gave a one-off piece of advice in respect of a project for UI Energy in August 2008. He sought, and received, approval from the advisory committee on business appointments before undertaking this project.

"UI Energy requested of the committee that they delay public announcement for reasons of market sensitivity, which the committee agreed to do."

The committee also detailed on its website a similarly unpublished deal with the ruling family in Kuwait. He has worked for them since June 2008, reportedly with the task of producing a £1million report on the oil state's future over the next 30 years.

Separately it emerged yesterday that the police ran up a bill of £273,000 to protect Mr Blair as he attended the inquiry into the Iraq War in January.

Hundreds of officers were stationed outside the inquiry as Mr Blair faced a furious backlash from protesters.

The Metropolitan Police said the total cost of enforcing a ring of steel around the Westminster conference centre was £273,000 and could yet run higher.

The bill was made up of £178,000 ''opportunity costs'', money the Met would have spent anyway meeting the wages of officers usually assigned to other duties.

The London force rang up a further £61,000 in overtime and £34,000 in other costs, including air support, barriers, transport, road signs and other equipment.

Mr Blair slipped into the conference centre at 7.15am before the vast majority of protesters arrived and leaving by a side entrance.

Hundreds of people later gathered outside the conference centre to chant anti-Blair slogans and call for his arrest for war crimes.

Sources close to Mr Blair said the policing of Mr Blair’s evidence to the inquiry was “an operational decision for the police”.

Mr Blair’s spokesman said: “We never comment on security.”