The Richest Corporal In The World?
The British corporal who acted as a translator for the British NATO commander in Afghanistan and who was charged with espionage appears to be very well heeled. Very, very well heeled. Like to the tune of millions of dollars. On a corporal's salary of about £ 29,000 (plus allowances) per year. He also helped run a club with an interesting weekly recreational evening.
Corporal Daniel James also used to help run a nightclub owned by the son of the controversial property tycoon Nicholas Hoogstraten.
James is a fitness fanatic who has been a member of the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment Territorial Army unit for 17 years, friends have told The Daily Telegraph.
James, who is of Iranian descent, was recruited as a translator for Lt-Gen David Richards, commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, to act as a translator in the Dari dialect of Farsi, one of the main languages in the country.
The 44-year-old Shia Muslim, who changed his name 10 years ago, was charged this week with passing secrets to a foreign power under the 1911 Official Secrets Act.
He is thought to have arrived in Britain from Teheran aged 17 after the overthrow of the Shah. He married an English woman and had a son, but the couple divorced 16 years ago. His mother still lives in Iran.
He owns five houses, including an £800,000 property, which are converted into flats and rented. Yesterday his silver Lexus car was parked in the drive of one of them. James served in 6 Company, the Princess of Wales' Royal Regiment based at Quebec barracks in Brighton, not far from Club New York, which he helped to run……
…..The club, now known as The Church, features a bondage night with an improvised dungeon. The session in the former church is called Debauchery and is run by a group which says it is "a collective of creative professionals with a specific interest in fetish affiliated arts".
James was involved in running the nightclub and his name remains above the door although he resigned as a director of the company which runs it last year.
There may be family money involved here. What he did while running his club may or may not be of any real importance. But there are so many screaming red flags waving over this guy's head that it is incredible that the military allowed him into a sensitive position. James' history screams security risk. Just the amount of money he is worth should have set off every alarm bell in the bureaucracy. But the Telegraph reports that it is not at all clear that James was even vetted for his job.
War, World news | Gaius Thursday, 21 December , 2006
By pacific_waters, Saturday, 23 December , 2006 @ 12:33 pm
Even in the territorial army 17 years seems like a long time to remain a corporal.