Boris Johnson was paid 240,000 after Maduro meeting, invoice shows
From a private jet somewhere over the Caribbean Sea in February last year, Boris Johnson called his old political adversary David Cameron, then the foreign secretary, to notify him of a visit.
Johnson had taken a day out from a family holiday in the Dominican Republic for an unlikely meeting with the leftwing president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, a man whom Johnson, when in office, had likened to a “dictator of an evil regime”.
The other participant in the meeting was less well known: Maarten Petermann, a hedge fund manager.
When later questioned about the meeting, Johnson told UK government officials: “It is not true to say that I was paid for any meetings in Venezuela.” The former prime minister said he had no contractual relationship with the hedge fund Merlyn Advisors.
Johnson later suggested he had been acting as a diplomatic backchannel, but weeks after attending the 45-minute meeting, the Guardian can reveal, Johnson received £240,000 from Petermann.
The revelation is contained in the Boris Files, a leak of data from the office of Boris Johnson, his private office, which receives a taxpayer-funded allowance. The files contain a contract with Merlyn Advisors signed by Johnson months earlier in September 2023.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/sep/08/boris-johnson-nicolas-maduro-meeting-invoice