Ex-Brit MI6 spy Christopher Steele behind ‘dirty Kremlin dossier on Donald Trump’ rakes in £1million profit in two years snooping for powerful clients
Christopher Steele, said to have been hired by Trump's enemies, has made a fortune spying for powerful clients
AN intelligence firm run by the British former spy at the heart of the Donald Trump dirty dossier scandal has raked in more than £1million profit in two years.
Ex-MI6 man Christopher Steele, who co-owns Orbis Business Intelligence, has made a fortune snooping for powerful clients.
He is said to have been hired by Trump’s Republican enemies and Hillary Clinton supporters to rake up dirt on the billionaire tycoon.
But he went to ground with his three children “in fear of his life” as the report allegedly provided by him caused a political earthquake.
Tensions rose last night as Moscow publicly blamed MI6 for the dossier. The Russian embassy in London posted a sinister tweet suggesting Steele was still working for MI6 and “briefing both ways” against Trump and Moscow.
The tweet declared: “MI6 officers are never ex.” An embassy spokesman said the tweet “reflected the mood in Russia”.
There were claims last night that Steele was in an MI6 safe house.
He is said to have fled as the furore broke on Wednesday, telling neighbours: “Look after my cat.”
He left so quickly that he appeared to have left the lights on at the home.
His disappearance came as furious MI6 chiefs distanced themselves from him for dragging them into the scandal. They have told ministers he showed “appalling judgment” over the incident.
London-based OBI, which Steele ran with fellow ex-spook Christopher Burrows, recorded profits of £626,177 in 2016. That had rocketed 50 per cent on the previous year when his company made £401,232.
The figures are in the accounts of OBI’s parent company Orbis Business International, which Steele signed off before Christmas.
Business began booming in 2013 when OBI was said to have made more than £1million working with the FBI to smash corruption at Fifa.
Steele, named as the man behind the dossier by the Wall Street Journal, fed the FBI info on corruption.
Fifa officials were arrested soon after over “rampant and systemic” corruption and long-time president Sepp Blatter stepped down.
Steele, 52, and Burrows, 58, both own 50 per cent stakes in the company and describe themselves as political consultants in the Companies House documents.
Steele’s career has helped to fund a luxurious £1.4million home in Surrey which he bought with second wife Katherine in July 2013. His first wife Laura died at 43 in 2009 after battling cirrhosis of the liver.
He was first posted to the UK embassy in Moscow in 1990 and spent nearly 20 years as one of MI6’s top Russia specialists before leaving to set up on his own.
The dossier alleged there was “an established exchange of information between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin of mutual benefit”.
A fuming Trump suggested US secret services engineered the leak to damage his reputation.
It is feared the allegations could make Trump a blackmail puppet of Vladimir Putin.
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The Sun learned last night Steele was briefed on the Kremlin’s use of hidden spy cameras by murdered Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko.
Sources said he met Litvinenko several times in London before the defector was killed by radioactive tea at a Mayfair hotel in 2006.
In 1999, when Litvinenko worked for Russian intelligence, prosecutor general Yuri Skuratov was filmed with hookers. Vladimir Putin used the tape to blackmail him.
A source said: “He was debriefing Litvinenko and passing on the information back to bosses at MI6.”
Steele’s father-in-law David Hunt, 78, from Newbury, Berks, said: “I have not spoken to him since before Christmas. I’m worried. We’re watching the news. Chris never spoke about his job.”
A senior intelligence source told The Sun: “If he’s behind it, Chris should never have accepted this work.
“It was always going to come out and it is deeply embarrassing to the service.”