Tony Blair's business operations are under scrutiny after the departure from his investment firm of a high-profile banker with connections to some of the world's richest investors and the revelation that the former prime minister secured big deals in the Middle East.
Mark Labovitch's resignation as chief operating officer of Blair's Firerush Ventures, little more than a year after he was appointed to the post, threatens to leave a hole in Blair's business empire.
Labovitch, 48 – who was appointed at the same time as a former Lehman Brothers banker, Varun Chandra, joined Firerush as an adviser – was seen in financial circles as someone who could open doors for Blair.
The Financial News newspaper described him as possessing "an expansive Rolodex of contacts and relationships built up during more than a decade as a senior investment banker".
Firerush is crucial to Blair's fortunes, not to mention the 130 people who work for him. Blair explained a couple of years ago, when his staff was much smaller, that he had to "earn £5m a year to pay the wages". Firerush, which gives its address as a PO box in west London, is licensed by the Financial Services Authority to offer investment advice in a number of countries, including three that have low-tax environments – Gibraltar, Lithuania and Romania.
Records filed at Companies House show that the Oxford-educated Labovitch joined Firerush on 1 June last year. He resigned on 28 July this year.
It is unclear why Labovitch – who is reportedly to become a director at Coventry City football club and has joined Gems, a Dubai-based provider of private education – parted company with Blair. In an email sent to the Observer, he declined to comment. Blair's spokesman also declined to answer emailed questions regarding Labovitch.
News of his departure comes as a Channel 4 Dispatches programme to be broadcast on Monday reveals Blair's role in two multi-billion-dollar contracts in Palestine.
The programme shows how, in his role as the Quartet's representative to the Middle East, Blair helped persuade the Israeli government to open up radio frequencies so that a mobile phone company, Wataniya, could operate in the West Bank.
He also championed the development of a huge gas field off the coast of Gaza operated by British Gas. Both Wataniya and British Gas are major clients of JP Morgan, the US investment bank that pays Blair £2m a year for a role as a senior adviser.
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