According to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, will not face a criminal investigation into his dealings with a former model while he was Mayor of London.
Last September, a UK Newspaper revealed that Johnson while Mayor of London had a ‘close relationship’ with US tech entrepreneur Jennifer Arcuri and failed to disclose his relationship with her even though she received thousands of pounds in public business funding from the UK government and was placed on official trade trips.
Innotech, Arcuri’s then company, had received £11,500 ($14,073) from London and Partners, the mayor’s promotional agency, for two events in 2013 and 2014 and she attended a trade mission to Singapore and Malaysia in 2014 through Playbox, one of her companies.
The matter was referred to the IOPC because Johnson was head of the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, during his term as mayor from 2008 to 2016. In October 2019, the UK’s Internal Audit Agency said a decision to award a £100,000 grant to a company run by Arcuri was appropriate.
Eight months after it was asked to look into links between Johnson and Arcuri, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has said it would not take any further action.
The IOPC said a review of Boris Johnson’s links with the businesswoman found there was a ‘close association’ between them and there may have been an ‘intimate relationship’, but there were no legitimate grounds for a criminal investigation of Johnson.
After the allegations arose, Arcuri appeared in TV interviews saying she and Johnson had enjoyed a ‘very special relationship’ and bonded over literature, but repeatedly refused to say whether she had had an affair with Johnson.
She told the BBC last year that whenever he texted her “it was not just a sexual intention”.
“He actually was very intrigued by my energy, my ability to get things done. He loved my events and he saw the way I could work a room, the way I met everybody.”
According to her, Johnson cast her aside like ‘some gremlin’ after the reports surfaced.
Johnson denied any wrongdoing, saying everything was done in accordance with the law.
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