How offshore havens, public contracts and party donations danced a waltz across Whitehall
It began, as these things often do, not with a bang but with a Belize-registered consulting firm and a hotelier whose idea of hospitality seemed borrowed from the Genghis Khan School of Management.
Welcome to the strange saga of Enter Stay Belvedere Hotels Ltd, Europa SA Holdings Ltd, Adam Capital Ltd, Helen Morgan MP, Safvan Adam, Circle ZTC Ltd, Bespoke Strategy Solutions, and the Lib Dems — a tragicomedy of offshore accounting, refugee roulette, and political donations delivered with all the subtlety of a burning deckchair flung into a swimming pool at the Barbados Yacht Club.
PART ONE: HOW TO GET RICH HOUSING PEOPLE YOU DON’T HAVE TO HOUSE
Imagine if a hotelier told you the secret to success was stuffing frightened people into barely converted barracks and then invoicing the Home Office for full-board luxury. You might laugh. Or cry. Or offer them a peerage. In Britain, all three are possible.
Enter Stay Belvedere Hotels Ltd (SBHL). This charming firm — directed by our main man Safvan Adam — raked in a modest £705 million in one year from the government for asylum accommodation. That’s £705,000,000.00 — not including the interest they earned storing it offshore while the staff allegedly earned less than a fiver an hour and guests complained of intimidation and squalor.
Now, far be it from us to suggest impropriety. There’s absolutely no law against making money. But when SBHL decided to thank its directors for their hard work, it did so with £45 million in dividends. That’s one way to say, “well done lads.”
And who were these lucky fellows? Safvan Adam and Bassam Gilini, among others. They weren’t known for their refugee policy papers — but they knew their way around a procurement form and a warm cheque from the Home Office.
PART TWO: THE ASYLUM-SEEKER WHO LANDED AT BARBADOS COMPANY HOUSE
Now then, where do you squirrel away all this freshly laundered public money? The answer, apparently, is Barbados.
Circle ZTC Ltd, an International Business Company conveniently parked in Saint George, Barbados, is the offshore grandparent of this whole tale. No one quite knows who owns it (and that’s the point), but it happens to own Europa SA Holdings Ltd, which owns Adam Capital Ltd, which is directed by – you guessed it –Safvan Adam.
It’s like Russian nesting dolls, except every doll is wearing sunglasses and holding a briefcase full of receipts from Dubai.
What do these companies do? Europa SA is listed as a “holding company”. Adam Capital is a “management consultancy”. Circle ZTC doesn’t say. It just quietly exists in the Caribbean sun, sipping tax-free dividends and avoiding inconvenient questions from the National Audit Office.
PART THREE: THE CONSULTANT WHO NEVER PICKED UP THE PHONE
Now, what story is complete without a “consultant” who doesn’t consult? Enter Bespoke Strategy Solutions (UAE) — a firm that Clearsprings (the main Home Office contractor) paid £17.1 million in “administrative fees.” Helpful types.
Except — minor detail — the UAE company didn’t exist when the payments started. Its founder denies knowing Graham King (Clearsprings’ boss). The Home Office says it’s all fine. The taxpayer’s wallet, meanwhile, sobs gently in the corner.
One might suspect that “Bespoke Strategy Solutions” is less a company and more an elaborate punchline. And what a punchline it is: £17 million… for what? We may never know, and that’s precisely how everyone involved seems to like it.
PART FOUR: WHEN DONATIONS RING LOUDER THAN ALARM BELLS
And here, is where the plump pigeon of irony flies headfirst into the patio doors of democracy.
In 2024, Adam Management Holdings Ltd— a company linked to, yes, again, Safvan Adam— donated over £760,000 to the Liberal Democrats, making him the party’s most enthusiastic benefactor this side of the House of Lords Gift Shop.
One small cheque — just £5,000 — landed in the lap of Helen Morgan, MP for North Shropshire. It was dutifully declared. But as journalists noted, the donor’s business had just earned millions housing migrants the government didn’t want — and now the same donor was bankrolling the very party lambasting that government’s migration policy.
It’s not quite hypocrisy. It’s more *sponsored opposition*. One imagines Helen Morgan defending asylum seekers in the chamber while her campaign leaflets are quietly underwritten by the people charging them £150 a night for a mattress and a kettle that doesn’t work.
PART FIVE: BREXIT? WHAT BREXIT?
Just to complete the tapestry: Helen Morgan’s campaign in 2021 started with a bang — until someone noticed she’d said Brexit was a “disaster for Shropshire.” Oops.
That comment was quietly deleted, along with several pro-EU social media posts. Like a political magician, she redirected voters’ eyes to roads, bins and libraries. The trick worked. She won. And then someone rediscovered a tweet comparing Priti Patel to *Goebbels*. That disappeared too.
Helen apologised. But by then she was already en route to Westminster, waving vaguely at local infrastructure and ducking any discussion of asylum policy or hotel barons with generous wallets.
FINAL THOUGHTS: WHEN EVERY ROOM COMES WITH A VIEW — OF BARBADOS
What ties this all together? A set of companies with confusing ownership, millions in public money, a few well-timed political donations, and a remarkable silence from those involved.
– SBHL? Paid and dismissed.
– Clearsprings? Still billing.
– Circle ZTC? Still sunbathing.
– Helen Morgan? Still smiling.
– Lib Dems? Still cashing the cheques.
The only losers? The taxpayers who funded it, the asylum seekers stuck in converted Travelodges, and the democratic process that still can’t quite figure out where all the money went.
But look on the bright side — at least the beds were probably made.
And as for the Liberal Democrats: for all their public piety and polished concern, their increasingly urgent need for donor cash appears to trump the very values they so often wear like a rosette. When virtue costs more than it’s worth, it seems even sanctimony can be rented by the night.
The Alternative Council 