Labour MP Keith Vaz faces sleaze inquiry over his outrageous bid to sway judge on behalf of crooked lawyer friend

Labour MP Keith Vaz faces sleaze inquiry over his outrageous bid to sway judge on behalf of crooked lawyer friend:

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By Stephen Wright and Richard Pendlebury
Last updated at 3:29 PM on 20th September 2008

A senior Labour MP is facing demands for a sleaze inquiry after intervening in a court case on behalf of a party donor.

Keith Vaz, chairman of the influential home affairs select committee, urged the High Court to delay proceedings involving a friend from whom he and his family had received lavish hospitality.

We can reveal that the friend - controversial lawyer Shahrokh Mireskandari - was on the brink of losing a long-running legal costs battle with an airline when Mr Vaz intervened.
keith vaz

Keith Vaz urged a judge to delay proceedings against his friend who was on the brink of losing a legal battle worth £400,000

The stakes were high as the lawyer is desperately challenging a court order to pay £400,000 in costs to the liquidator of the airline.

He is now facing a bankruptcy action after losing his latest appeal.

At a critical point in the case, 51-year-old Mr Vaz wrote to the High Court asking the presiding judge to adjourn proceedings pending the outcome of complaints by Mireskandari about how the case had been previously handled, involving hotly contested allegations of racism and bias.

Legal sources said the judge was furious at what he perceived to be 'political interference'.

As head of the home affairs committee, the MP for Leicester East has a key role in law-and-order issues.

Iranian-born Mireskandari, 47, is the lawyer at the centre of the Scotland Yard race row involving Britain's top Asian policeman, Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur, who has launched a £1.2million racial discrimination claim against Met chief Sir Ian Blair.

Last week, we revealed that Mireskandari is a convicted fraudster with suspect legal qualifications. He is a close friend of Met Commander Ali Dizaei, president of the National Black Police Association, who was suspended on Thursday after the Mail revealed disturbing links between the pair.

Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable, who has campaigned on behalf of a constituent ripped off by Mireskandari, said: 'I am absolutely flabbergasted.

'I have had a long letter from Keith Vaz in which he tries to tell me that he does not have a close relationship with Mireskandari and that his dealings with him were solely motivated by concerns for ethnic-minority lawyers.

'This does not tally with the information becoming available, of him going to extraordinary lengths of approaching a judge in an ongoing court case.

'I am not aware of any other precedent in modern times of politicians seeking to influence a member of the judiciary in this way. It raises serious questions about conduct.'

Mr Cable called for Jack Straw, who as Lord Chancellor has responsibility for ensuring the independence of the courts, to investigate.

But Mr Vaz could also face a second parliamentary inquiry if a complaint is made to the Committee on Standards in Public Life.

The MPs' code of conduct states that 'members shall at all times conduct themselves in a manner which will tend to maintain and strengthen the public's trust and confidence in the integrity of Parliament'.

Mr Vaz refused to discuss the contents of his letter to the High Court. He said: 'On many occasions, especially in this particular case, people write to me who allege racism and ask for things to be done. We send their letters on to the judges or CPS.'

Later, he confirmed that he had sent a joint letter with Virendra Sharma, MP for Ealing Southall, to the Lists Clerk of the High Court after Mireskandari's firm Dean and Dean wrote to a number of ethnic-minority MPs alleging racism by a deputy judge.


REVEALED: Vaz's breathtaking abuse of his position

The scene is the opulent Turandot restaurant in central Moscow, a baroque palace where staff in period costume serve 'pan-Asian cuisine' while bewigged colleagues play chamber music.

In May, MPs from the House of Commons home affairs select committee found themselves there as dinner guests of the Russian deputy prime minister, Alexander Zhukov.

Around two dozen were at the £400-a-head table in a private room, a mixture of Russian and British politicians and officials.

Shahrokh Mireskandari

Vaz's friend 'Sean' Mireskandari, who the Daily Mail has revealed is a convicted fraudster, is the ringmaster of the race war convulsing Scotland Yard

In the position of honour at Mr Zhukov's side sat the Rt Hon Keith Vaz, Labour MP and chairman of the home affairs committee, a man who has long enjoyed the company of the very rich.

But there was one face among the British party which was unfamiliar to most of those in the room. 'Who is that?' Vaz was asked.

The chairman wrinkled his brow as if struggling to recall and replied: 'I think it's Shahrokh Mireskandari', adding: 'He is one of London's leading ethnic-minority solicitors.'

Vaz's hesitation was disingenuous, to say the least. He knew full well the identity of this unexplained guest since the MP and his wife, the immigration lawyer Maria Fernandes, enjoy a close and mutually beneficial relationship with 'Sean' Mireskandari.

But Vaz, whose reputation was originally tainted by sleaze through his part in the Hinduja passport scandal seven years ago, does not seem keen to advertise this closeness. His reasons will become clear.

Last week we revealed that Iranian-born Mireskandari, 47, had once been convicted for his part in a consumer fraud in the US.

His legal qualifications are also the subject of an investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. And yet he is now a £750-an-hour lawyer to the international super-rich, as well as being the outspoken ringmaster of a race war paralysing Scotland Yard.

Mireskandari is the lawyer masterminding Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur's claim of racial discrimination against Commissioner Sir Ian Blair.

He is also lawyer and close friend to another controversial senior police officer, fellow Iranian Ali Dizaei, a commander in the Met and president of the National Black Police Association, for which Mireskandari's firm Dean and Dean provides legal services.

We revealed last week that Mireskandari had secretly employed Dizaei as a defence consultant to undermine a Met investigation into one of Dean and Dean's clients, an Eastern European woman charged with death by dangerous driving and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Dizaei is now under investigation for the allegation, one of three current official inquiries into his conduct. On Thursday he was suspended from duty.

Mireskandari and Dizaei are two of three public figures whose cronyism moved one employee of Dean and Dean to describe them as the 'Three Musketeers'. The third? Keith Vaz.

Now we can reveal the true extent of the 'favour-for-a-favour' relationship between the
senior politician and the dodgy lawyer, who is also a Labour Party donor.
KEITH VAZ and his wife

Mrs Vaz, immigration lawyer Maria Fernandes, has enjoyed lavish hospitality from Mireskandari including music concerts and the Bolshoi Ballet

Mireskandari has twice persuaded Vaz, who as chairman of the home affairs select committee is the most influential backbencher in the field of law and order, to intervene and delay or even derail official examination of his dubious activities.

On neither occasion did Vaz, whose family have frequently enjoyed the lawyer's hospitality, declare their close personal relationship.

Last week we exposed the official letter which Vaz wrote to the SRA, the professional watchdog which was looking at a number of complaints by Mireskandari's clients. A 'concerned' Vaz demanded an urgent answer from the SRA to the alleged 'prejudicial and discriminatory conduct' against Dean and Dean.

Now we can reveal the existence of a second, even more extraordinary letter which Vaz wrote to the High Court this year. In it he asked that a case involving Mireskandari be adjourned, pending investigations into the lawyer's complaints against two judges previously involved in the case.

The furious High Court judge ignored his intervention. Instead, we can reveal, a petition for bankruptcy was issued against Mireskandari in the High Court three weeks ago. Officials are now seeking to serve the papers physically on him.

VAZ'S 'love-in' with Mireskandari began last summer, according to sources, but its roots lay in the politician's long-standing connections to two billionaire foreign families - the Hindujas and the Auchis.

The Hinduja brothers are the Indian magnates who were implicated in an arms scandal back home and whose attempts to get British passports led to the resignation in 2001 of then Northern Ireland

Secretary Peter Mandelson. He had been accused of lobbying for those passports in return for donations towards the cost of the Millennium Dome.

Vaz was then a foreign office minister. His wife's firm was employed by the Hindujas.

While most of the complaints against Vaz were not upheld, parliamentary standards commissioner Elizabeth Filkin criticised the ' collusion' between husband and wife, whose answers she described as 'misleading' and 'disingenuous'. She recommended that Vaz be suspended from the House.

Mireskandari has subsequently represented the Hindujas, but some sources suggest that he was introduced to Vaz by another client, Iraqi-born tycoon Nadhmi Auchi.

'Sean Mireskandari was desperate to get a top contact in the political world,' said a source. 'Vaz was the key. He became a regular visitor to Sean's office.'

Central to the relationship was hospitality. Two sources say that Vaz and his wife sat alongside Mireskandari in his box at the first concert held at the new Wembley Stadium in June last year. George Michael was the performer.

This was to be a pivotal weekend. The day before the Wembley concert, Petr Zhukov, the investment banker son of the Russian deputy prime minister, had been jailed in London for his part in a drunken attack on a friend's neighbour.

Zhukov family immediately planned an appeal and sought a new lawyer to handle it. A contact suggested Mireskandari. By June 21 he was instructed.

An associate recalls his glee. 'Sean said, "There are 250,000 Russians in this city. Most of them are rich. I want to corner the market".'

Mireskandari went into overdrive, cementing his Vaz relationship. One associate recalls sitting alongside Vaz's wife at a Barbra Streisand concert in mid-July, in the box at the O2 Arena used by Mireskandari.
Ali Dizaei.

Ali Dizaei, another Vaz crony, was suspended this week after the Mail revealed he advised Mireskandari on how to fight a case brought by the Met

Vaz had also hosted a table for a £1,000-a-head Labour Party fundraiser at Wembley Stadium on July 12. At his table were the wealthy family of Mireskandari's death-by-dangerous-driving defendant.

That favour was rewarded with a mutually beneficial networking coup. July 31 saw the gala opening night of the Bolshoi Ballet's season at the London Coliseum.

Tickets were 'to kill for'. But Mireskandari managed to get two for Mr and Mrs Vaz, courtesy of Mrs Zhukov, according to an associate. Although Vaz was unable to go, his wife, hosted by Mireskandari's firm Dean and Dean, was allowed into the high-security VIP area where other guests included Baroness Thatcher.

Afterwards she was driven to the Russian embassy, where a barbecue was held in the gardens. According to witnesses, Mrs Vaz partied until late with members of the ballet corps and Russian diplomats.

According to one of the lawyer's ex-clients, Mrs Vaz was again in the Dean and Dean box at the O2 Arena to see the Rolling Stones in late August.

That same week, on August 23, the register of political donations shows that Dean and Dean gave the Labour Party £11,000, in two lump sums. Six days later, on August 29, Mireskandari wrote a formal letter to his friend Vaz complaining about his treatment at the hands of the Solicitors Registration Authority.

On September 4, the SRA's chief executive Anthony Townsend duly received an official letter from Vaz.

It referred to a 'Dr S Mireskandari' and his allegations of discrimination and prejudice. It failed however to mention the dinners, the concerts, the gala evenings that the politician and the lawyer had enjoyed together.

The letter led to a meeting in October between Vaz and Mr Townsend. One wonders whether the MP then disclosed that he had recently given the eulogy at a memorial dinner for Mireskandari's mother, during which Vaz told the gathering that Gordon Brown had sent his personal sympathy.

On December 11 in Committee Room 2a at the House of Lords, the Three Musketeers launched a combined offensive.

Junior justice minister Bridget Prentice had agreed to meet Vaz and SRA officials to discuss the allegations of racism.

But Vaz turned up with Dizaei and Mireskandari also in tow. The latter claimed to be representing an obscure body called the European Muslim Lawyers' Association. At the bad-tempered meeting Vaz attacked the SRA leadership and demanded that the body stop investigating ethnic-minority lawyers.

Extraordinarily, he also suggested that the National Black Police Association - headed by Mireskandari's friend Dizaei - should work alongside the lawyers' watchdog. For his part Dizaei told the gathering that he wore the 'battle scars of institutional racism'.

Did Mr Townsend, the SRA head, have a problem 'with people of colour?' because his disrespect was ' breathtaking'.

Let us recall now the more ' breathtaking' aspects of Dizaei's chequered career. Five years ago he was sensationally cleared at the Old Bailey of corruption charges. But the long investigation into Dizaei had served to reveal a deeply flawed character. In one taped phone call he told one of his many mistresses: 'I will take such revenge from you, that like a dog, you will be sorry.

'You are not safe. I am going to come and catch you, on my mother's life. You want war, bitch, you're going to get some war. You will see now what I can do so you will cry for years. First I will start with your family ... I will spread all over London that you are a prostitute.'

There were still outstanding disciplinary charges against him, but when the NBPA threatened a black recruitment boycott the Met were forced to reinstate him, pay compensation and put him on the promotion fast track.

Following her meeting with Vaz, Dizaei and Co, Mrs Prentice said she could not interfere with the SRA as it was an independent body.

But Mireskandari's cronies had made their point. Vaz was thanked for his hard work when Mireskandari presented him with a special 'award' at Dean and Dean's lavish annual Christmas party in a Park Lane hotel.

The compliment was returned at the House of Commons on February 21 this year, when Vaz presented his friend with the 2007 'Asian Lawyer of the Year' award.

But the Mireskandari-Vaz partnership was now bearing more important fruit than such baubles.

One week after the prize-giving 'following pressure from Keith Vaz', according to reports in the liberal press, an 'independent working party' was set up by the SRA to investigate whether it had been disproportionately investigating ethnic minority firms.

It was chaired by the respected black QC Anesta Weekes.

And who else was on this independent working party? None other than Ali Dizaei, at whose wedding the previous August Mireskandari had given the principal speech.

Miss Weekes told the Mail that she was unaware of this, adding: 'It would have been helpful for Ali Dizaei to disclose his relationship to Mr Mireskandari at the outset.'

The networking continued. On March 14 Mireskandari was the auctioneer at a gala dinner in Mayfair for the Silver Star charity, of which Vaz is patron.

Deputy Prime Minister Harriet Harman, Paymaster General Tessa Jowell and Dizaei were among the guests at the tables which cost £1,000 apiece.

Mireskandari bought as many as six. During the evening Vaz announced to polite applause that Dizaei had been promoted from chief superintendent to commander.

Weeks later, no doubt emboldened by Vaz's support, Mireskandari announced that he was launching a £10million racial harassment and defamation claim against the SRA.

We now come to the quite extraordinary events of the home affairs select committee trip to Moscow this spring.

On May 13, some ten MPs and officials, led by Vaz, flew to Moscow to discuss human trafficking. That evening they had dinner at the aforementioned Turandot, where deputy prime minister Zhukov, his wife and officials as well as Mireskandari were waiting for them.

It is clear, from the accounts of at least two British MPs, that the special relationship between Vaz, Mireskandari and Mr Zhukov - whose son Dean and Dean was representing - was not explained.

Anne Cryer MP said: 'There was a man there, a solicitor. He came to functions we went to but I could not work out who he was.'

The next day the MPs went to the Duma (the Russian parliament) for a meeting with officials. One MP recalls: 'We were taken into a room where the Russian politicians were formally waiting for us.

'Everyone sat down around a table and introduced themselves. The British were on one side, the Russians facing us on the other.' And sitting confidently at the end of the table was Mireskandari. One member of the British delegation said: 'I remember thinking, what the hell is this solicitor doing here?

'When it was his turn to introduce himself, one of the Russians said, "We think you know Shahrokh Mireskandari already". And that was that. A solicitor from London, with no obvious reason for being there, sat in on a diplomatic meeting between Britain and Russia.'

The following month the Vaz-Mireskandari partnership was behind perhaps the most shocking example of secret conflicting interests.

Mireskandari had once represented a Romanian company called Angel Airlines. The company had been shocked by the size of Dean and Dean's subsequent bill and litigation followed.

A cost judge agreed with the airline (which went into liquidation during the protracted litigation) but Mireskandari appealed on no fewer than 20 occasions against the decision - an 'appalling piece of litigation' according to one judge.

By June this year Mireskandari was running out of options and facing ruinous cost claims from the Angel Airlines case.

It was at this critical point that a letter, signed by Keith Vaz, was sent to the High Court, asking for the case to be adjourned pending investigations into various complaints against previous judges.

Mr Justice Coulson became aware of the letter shortly before he was to decide Mireskandari's last appeal.

A source close to the judge said: 'He was very surprised to get a letter asking for an adjournment from someone (Vaz) who was not a party in the case. The judge had never come across something like this before in his long career.'

The judge's astonishment was understandable. Here was the chairman of the home affairs select committee using his position to interfere in the judicial process.

On Monday, June 23, Mr Justice Coulson revealed the letter's existence to the court and the depth of his displeasure. One lawyer present said: 'He was visibly upset ... absolutely furious about this interference in the judicial process. He gave the letter very short shrift.'

He also said the whole Angel Airlines case had been an ' extraordinary saga' and dismissed the appeal. This meant that costs of more than £400,000 had to be paid to the airline's liquidators.

Of this, Mireskandari, a senior partner, has been deemed personally liable for £265,000.

In July the liquidators duly sent him a statutory demand for payment. When this was not forthcoming a bankruptcy petition was issued against him, on August 27.

Petition No 8411 will be heard at 10am in the High Court on November 19 when, unless he coughs up, the good doctor will be declared bankrupt.

Needless to say, he has launched a further action, this time claiming a breach of Romanian law. In all, a legal source, estimated, his 'beanstalk litigation' as one judge called it, has cost more than £1million.

What price now Vaz's reputation and his continued chairmanship of the home affairs select committee, whose integrity he has compromised?

Last night Vaz said of Mireskandari: 'He's not a close friend of mine.'

Asked why, then, he had delivered the eulogy at the lawyer's mother's memorial, the MP replied: 'I give eulogies to many people. People invite MPs to come and we say things. I regularly give eulogies.'

- Andrew Niblock, Northern Ireland, 20/9/2008 16:28

Vaz has a past internal Party conviction for this same or a very similar offence when he came close to being drummed out of the Labour Party and being de-selected as an MP and that was only a few years ago but unfortunately someone spoke up for him and said what a Mr.Wonderful he was, which of course was utter rubbish, and here he is doing the same thing.He should be kicked out of the Party and de-selected forthwith !

- patrick, Cadiz,Spain British ex-pat, 20/9/2008 16:08