More sleaze surrounding "cuddly" Ken

The Evening Standard are reporting that "A second senior aide to Ken Livingstone had a personal interest in an organisation that received substantial sums from City Hall and is unable to account for the money.

According to official records, the Deshbangla Foundation has never declared any income or filed any accounts, and all the money paid to it by the Mayor's London Development Agency appears to have vanished.

The foundation is directly associated with Kumar Murshid, who was the Mayor's senior adviser on regeneration and was also a member of the LDA board at the time of the grants.

The development comes after the Evening Standard revealed that Lee Jasper, the Mayor's adviser on equalities and policing, is under investigation by the Greater London Authority, after at least £2.5 million of City Hall money was channelled to organisations linked to himself, his friends and his business associates.

Mr Jasper and Mr Murshid, 52, were friends and colleagues. Mr Murshid was co-chairman of the National Assembly Against Racism, which has received at least £168,200 in funding from City Hall and whose secretary is Mr Jasper.

Mr Murshid was also a co-director with Mr Jasper of Operation Black Vote, and an executive member of the Black Londoners Forum, another Jasper-linked organisation that has received at least £291,500 from the Mayor. "


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