Johan Eliasch, Gordon Brown consultant, fined for illegal Amazon logging

[Judi Lynn]

Johan Eliasch, Gordon Brown consultant, fined for illegal Amazon logging
Last Updated: 1:26AM BST 07/06/2008

A company belonging to a Swedish businessman with close links to Gordon Brown has been fined £137 million for illegally cutting down Amazon rainforest, Brazilian officials said yesterday.

Ibama, the Brazilian environmental agency, said it would levy a 450 million reals fine on Gethal, a company owned by Johan Eliasch. It was accused of cutting down 230,000 trees and lacking certification for Amazon land it allegedly owned.

Mr Eliasch, 46, who is based in London, has an estimated net worth of £395 million. He is a former deputy treasurer of the Conservative Party and now an environmental consultant to the prime minister.

But it is his role as the co-chairman of Cool Earth, the British-based organisation with the aim of finding sponsors to buy tracts of Amazon rainforest to protect it, that has angered some Brazilians.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2087169/Johan-Eliasch%2C-Gordon-Brown-consultant%2C-fined-for-illegal-Amazon-logging.html

[DCKit]

1. "...now an environmental consultant to the prime minister."

Ah, the Republican values crowd goes international.