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BIOGRAPHY Michael Ashcroft was educated at Anglia Polytechnic University and became a management trainee at Rothmans . From 1977 he developed an international business services company, ADT Limited, which was sold to US conglomerate Tyco for £2.5 billion in 1997. He is now chairman of BB Holdings Limited ( Nasdaq ) which has interests in facilities services, finance and telecommunications. It is the parent company of The Belize Bank and has a 26% share in Belize Telecommunications. Michael Ashcroft has other business connections with Belize , and was appointed as the Belize government's Permanent Representative to the United Nations up to April 2000. He has made large donations to the People's United Party of Belize. As of March 2006 he became the major shareholder in English professional Football club Watford , owning up to 42% of the clubs shares. UK POLITICS In the UK, he was a major donor to and Treasurer of the due to his domicile in Belize; he gained overseas donations for the Party which some thought inappropriate; and he was at the centre of a debate about openness and accountability of political funding. In 2004 he clashed with Conservative leader Michael Howard when he offered a £2m donation on the condition that it should go to his specified candidates, rather than into general Conservative Central Office funds. Conservative Party loans During the " Cash For Peerages " controversy, on 31 March 2006 he was named by the Conservative Party as having loaned it £3.6m. AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Michael Ashcroft has become a significant figure in Australian politics having been identified as the single largest individual donor to any Australian political party during the Financial Year 2004/2005. The Australian Electoral Commission reported in February 2006 that Ashcroft (who gave his address as "House of Lords, Westminster, London") had donated $1,000,000 to the Liberal Party in September 2004 just before the 2004 Federal election. It was the biggest single disclosed private donation in Australian political history. Lord Ashcroft KCMG Annual Return (PDF) at Annual Returns Locator Service U.S. DEA LEAK SCANDAL In the U.S., an intelligence research specialist for the Drug Enforcement Agency, Jonathan Randel, leaked Ashcroft's name as being in the DEA's files, although it later emerged that Ashcroft was one of 5 million people they had files on. Randel claims to have believed the DEA was ignoring Ashcroft in its investigation of money laundering, so Ashcroft sued. A U.S. attorney investigated Randel for his leak. On January 9 , 2003 , Randel was sentenced to a year in a federal prison, followed by three years probation. HONOURS In March 2000, Ashcroft was appointed as a Life Peer with the title Baron Ashcroft, of Chichester in the County of West Sussex. His appointment to the House Of Lords was controversial at the time, particularly because of his business and political interests in Belize. He was nominated by Conservative party leader William Hague on the condition that he became a UK resident. Ashcroft then announced that he intended to take the title "Baron Ashcroft of Belize", a suggestion that infuriated his political opponents. He later claimed this had been a joke, and his title was created as simply Baron Ashcroft. Ashcroft inquiry called off – BBC News In June 2000 he was awarded a KCMG for public service to the community and country of Belize. He has been Chancellor of Anglia Polytechnic University since November 2001, and has donated £5 million for the university's business school at Chelmsford , now called Ashcroft International Business School. He is Chairman of UK charity Crimestoppers. He ranked 66th in the Sunday Times Rich List 2006 , with an estimated personal wealth of £820m. He is also known for his collection of Victoria Cross medals, which is reputed to contain about 100 examples, which would probably be the largest private collection of VCs ever assembled. REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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