Tony Blair Has Used His Connections to Change the World, and to Get Rich
By DANNY HAKIM
LONDON — Not long after stepping down as prime minister in 2007, Tony Blair had drinks at a hotel overlooking the River Thames with Paul Kagame, Rwanda's president. Mr. Blair was planning a charity that would embed Western experts in finance and government in African state ministries, and he said he wanted to begin in Rwanda.
"Tony Blair was pitching himself as a former leader who knew the challenges of government, and he was saying that he could help," said David Himbara, an economist who at the time was a close aide to Mr. Kagame.
In the years since, Mr. Blair has tried to fashion a second act as a globe-trotting do-gooder in Rwanda and a half-dozen other African nations, focusing on poverty and infrastructure though his Africa Governance Initiative, one of the four charities he or his wife, Cherie, have founded. He has also taken on a major diplomatic role in the Middle East as the representative of the so-called quartet — the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.
But at home, enthusiasm for such endeavors has been tempered by criticism of his equally ambitious business enterprises, through a private consultancy called Tony Blair Associates, whose clients have included controversial monarchs and autocrats like Kazakhstan's president, Nursultan A. Nazarbayev. The British press, which still bristles over Mr. Blair's support of the United States in the Iraq war, is taking aim at his newfound riches from consulting, raising questions over whether he is cashing in on his connections.
In many ways, Mr. Blair faces a perception problem. Years into his postpolitical makeover, confusion lingers about what particular hat he wears at any given time.
Last year, he made headlines after taking part in a conference in which Guinea announced a $5 billion deal with the Mubadala Development Company, Abu Dhabi's state investment fund, to develop an aluminum ore mine and refinery in Guinea. His consulting firm has a contract with Mubadala, while his Africa charity works with Guinea's government. He also talks to the Abu Dhabi government in his role as a quartet diplomat.
His various roles often intersect with polarizing figures, which has only given the press more fodder.
As part of his quartet duties, he worked alongside the Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in a failed attempt to mediate a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas. Mr. Sisi had ousted the previous president after millions came out against the elected government and then relied on a violent crackdown to silence the opposition. That Mr. Blair is also advising Mr. Sisi on an informal basis has only prompted questions about whether he is benefiting financially. Mr. Blair's office said that he was not making money off the relationship.
Mr. Blair, in an interview at his office — in a Mayfair townhouse where John Adams lived when he was the American ambassador — said his "conflict rules are drawn up by a phalanx of lawyers and accountants." While he noted that his business operations helped provide the infrastructure and support for the charitable ones, he said, "There's absolutely no help that goes the other way at all.
Mr. Blair spent a decade as Britain's prime minister, sweeping into power in 1997 using a playbook with some similarities to his friend Bill Clinton's — a youthful, centrist New Labour candidate who pushed out a Conservative government led by John Major. While he helped forge peace in Northern Ireland, the war in Iraq overshadowed his tenure and divided public opinion about him.
From the beginning, his consulting work raised questions in the media about conflicts of interest. In 2008, Mr. Blair, in his role as a quartet diplomat, persuaded the Israeli government to allow a Qatari-owned mobile phone company, which was then called Wataniya Telecom, to operate in the West Bank. Wataniya's parent company was a client of JPMorgan Chase, which employs Mr. Blair as an adviser. Another deal he pushed in his quartet role involved the development of an oil field operated by British Gas, another JPMorgan client, off the coast of Gaza.
Mr. Blair would not comment specifically on his personal finances or on some details of his consulting relationships, but his staff was adamant that the deals were solely diplomatic priorities and Mr. Blair had not been aware of the JPMorgan links. A spokeswoman for the bank said the relationships with the companies were longstanding and the deals were unrelated to Mr. Blair.
At a time when Africa's investment fortunes are rising, Mr. Blair is well positioned, an adviser for hire with employees embedded in several African governmental ministries. With his deep connections, the lines between his roles can blur at times, even if conflicts don't exist.
He and Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan's chief executive, visited Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan, together in 2010 and have appeared together alongside Mr. Kagame. The bank also lent at least one employee to Mr. Blair's Africa charity who then went to work with the Rwanda Governance Board, a state agency that encourages private investment in the country.
JPMorgan officials said Mr. Blair's role was advisory and that he didn't initiate deals. Mr. Blair's staff said he did not profit from his charitable work.
Mr. Blair's work in Rwanda has suffered along with Mr. Kagame's reputation, which has been undercut by reports of ruthlessness and repression. Mr. Himbara, once the government's liaison with Mr. Blair, has long since left. He said his breaking point came after seeing Mr. Kagame order the beating of two aides over their choice of office curtains. (Mr. Kagame offered a somewhat different accoun t of what happened.) Mr. Himbara said Mr. Blair's charity "did good work, but good work when you realize you are working with a criminal state, then good work becomes what?"
Mr. Blair dismisses such criticism, pointing out how far Rwanda has come under Mr. Kagame in the two decades since the Rwandan genocide.
"When we do work in countries where people criticize us, I would say, look at what we're actually doing and then ask yourself, is that something we should be doing or not," he said. "The work we're doing in Rwanda, for example, is about improving their systems for improving the lives of their people and reducing poverty."
Nuts-and-bolts issues like helping plan new roads and electric lines have been a priority. His charity is helping build a solar plant in Rwanda. But Mr. Blair has kept silent on political issues like the criminalization of homosexuality in countries like Liberia. "You can decide to make that your issue in Africa," he said of gay rights. "If you do, that is your issue in Africa."
His charities have applied for financing from the British government in the past but have been rebuffed; British aid officials would not give a reason.
"When we even thought of making an application, there was some big story about how I was about to take money off the British taxpayer," Mr. Blair said, suggesting he might not try again. "It's just not worth the hassle."
He has received a warmer response from the American government, which has awarded one of his charities grants of more than $7 million over several years. The relationship has been helped by high-level friends, including Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former secretary of state.
In 2012, David Miliband, the brother of the current leader of Britain's Labour Party, emailed Secretary Clinton on behalf of the Africa Governance Initiative to ask for her help in getting the State Department to "work closely" with Mr. Blair's charity on development efforts in South Sudan.
Mrs. Clinton replied: "David — I've asked Wendy Sherman, our political director, to coordinate our contacts w you and AGI and am copying her so you and she can communicate directly. We look forward to working w you to help South Sudan."
The exchange was first reported by The Telegraph.
Much of the discussion about Mr. Blair in Britain has focused on a simple question: How rich is he getting?
Mr. Blair brushed off suggestions in the media that he was worth 100 million pounds, roughly $170 million. "The reports of my wealth are greatly exaggerated," he quipped after a recent speech. "I'm not worth half of that, a third of that, a quarter of that, a fifth of that, and I can go on."
But he is not middle class, either. He is paid a total of $5 million to $7 million a year by three firms: JPMorgan, Khosla Ventures and the Zurich Insurance Group. He gives about a dozen speeches a year; one 2009 speech in the Philippines earned him more than $300,000, but an aide said that was unusually high.
His various enterprises employ more than 200 people. His consultancy operates through a web of businesses with names like Firerush Ventures Limited and Windrush Ventures Limited — the latter reported $3.4 million in profit last year. His companies reported roughly $12 million in net assets. His business perks include private or chartered jet flights and stays at hotels like the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, known for its gold-dispensing vending machine.
Then there is the Blairs' growing collection of properties. They have bought nine houses or apartments, mostly in the last decade, for a total of $28 million, including a house and an adjoining property in central London and a Buckinghamshire estate once owned by the actor John Gielgud.
An aide said many of Mr. Blair's properties had mortgages or were bought on behalf of his children. He also gave millions of dollars of the proceeds from his autobiography, "A Journey: My Political Life," to a charity for injured British troops.
"This notion that I'm about to join the rich list or something is just ridiculous, and I've got no desire to do that," Mr. Blair said. "It's not why I'm doing it."
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