Police review evidence in harrowing sex trafficking lawsuit against millionaire philanthropist

Investigators in the United Kingdom are examining evidence that suggests one of the country’s richest men was involved in a years-long plan to smuggle women into Britain and exploit them for sex, authorities said.

Hamish Ogston, a well-known British philanthropist worth around $160 million, was the subject of a bomb attack Sunday Times An investigation was published at the weekend detailing allegations that he had smuggled or attempted to smuggle vulnerable Filipino and Thai sex workers into the UK over the past 15 years. Following the report, Scotland Yard announced The times that he is aware of “allegations of exploitation” and drug offenses against Ogston.

“We take reports of this nature extremely seriously and are now reviewing this information to assess what further action is required,” the Metropolitan Police statement continued. Ogston, 75, has denied exploiting women. “I am deeply saddened that the publication of these allegations will cause immeasurable harm to the charities I have been able to support over the years,” he said.

A company he founded in 1980 distanced itself from its former CEO on Monday. A spokesman for CPP said: “Hamish Ogston left the board on June 28, 2013 and has since had no involvement in the management or operations of the group, other than the rights reserved to shareholders.”

The explosive claims came to light based on a leak of around 1,000 documents allegedly containing handwritten notes by Ogston that he kept to routinely record his thoughts. The Sunday Times The investigation into Ogston – who built his fortune with a credit card insurance company founded in his early 30s – involved a number of serious allegations, including that he smuggled a 23-year-old woman from the Philippines to the UK in 2013.

Once there, she was allegedly held on the Ogston property and abused for sex, sometimes involving unspecified “extreme activities” that could pose a risk to her health. According to the report, the woman was also tasked with storing footage of the sexual events that had been filmed for Ogston’s purposes.

Recent allegations also include that Ogston illegally employed a Thai woman as a sex worker and domestic helper, violating her visitor visa, which prohibits the visitor from any work. Ogston reportedly said he planned to hire the woman – who left the UK just last month – to destroy videos taken during his parties and stop police from getting to her after his death.

According to the investigation, Ogston admitted he amassed a collection of 3,000 films from his parties, shot at events fueled by late-night drug binges. He allegedly sourced drugs including crystal meth and cocaine through a Thai sex worker in London, who also sent other Thai women to his parties in Ogston. Ogston allegedly realized that many of the women were indebted to pimps Sunday Times They further claimed that the women were “probably” promised a better life.

Some of the Thai women allegedly required medical attention due to dangerous acts at Ogston’s parties. And in one case, he reportedly suggested to a lawyer that he could use his charity, the Hamish Ogston Foundation, as a “foil” to bring Thai women to the UK, even floating the idea of ​​using them as interns for the organization to use.

The report claims that London’s Metropolitan Police were informed of allegations of Ogston’s abuse of women and drug use in 2012 and 2013, but police did not investigate. It also alleged that in 2016 authorities contacted a woman who had paid Ogston for sex and who was later accused of extortion, and that an officer sent two emails from the woman to Ogston himself in which he described the Accused mogul of exploitation.

Scotland Yard said it was investigating possible misconduct by its officers and urged any suspected victims of modern slavery or human trafficking to come forward. Ogston’s lawyers said their client did not recognize the report’s description of events and that he needed time to respond to the allegations, which “go back many years.”