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His friendship with Jennifer Arcuri, and the funding she received, raises awkward questions that deserve answers
If success was really all about who you know, then Jennifer Arcuri might easily be a millionaire by now. The American model-turned-tech entrepreneur was a friend of Boris Johnson back when he was London’s mayor. So good a friend, apparently, that he used to visit her at her Shoreditch flat; so friendly that she reportedly managed to join a trade mission to New York led by Johnson, despite not having been officially invited on the trip.
The man whose number she stored in her mobile under “Alex the Great” (to close friends he’s Al or Alexander, not Boris, which is his middle name) lent her kudos by coming to tech summits she organised. She even reportedly used his name to approach the election campaign guru Lynton Crosby for a meeting. But most alarmingly of all, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport is currently investigating exactly how a grant of £100,000 in public money came to be awarded to her (all told, she won £126,000 in grants and sponsorship – money that for many people struggling to get a small business off the ground would be the stuff of dreams). And that’s where this story moves from the realms of gossip into far more serious questions about abuse of power and position. Continue reading...