UKIP leadership candidate John Rees-Evans has a very eclectic CV. He claims to have been a “private soldier” working with the Ugandan People’s Defence Force to fight terrorists. He says he has worked in a meat factory, as a postman, as a pizza delivery man and a builder. He apparently runs an expedition company called Team Kilimanjaro, and has an “apocalypse-proof” compound in rural Bulgaria complete with a cache of weapons and panic room. Yet Rees-Evans is not so vocal about another of his interests…

Rees-Evans’ personal email address is registered at an unusual looking website called SAS.VC. “SAS” stands for “Safaris, Adventure and Survival”, and purports to organise holidays in Africa. The “.VC” domain is the internet country code for Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The website is registered to a “Linus Evans” in Belize. Slightly curious for an African holiday company…

Even more curious is the about page for the “SAS” website. Far from mentioning anything about “Survival, Adventure and Safaris”, it reveals “SAS” actually stands for “Systech Accounting Services”. It says:

“Systech Accounting Services is a trading name of Exposure Limited, incorporated in Belize… Systech specialise in assisting their clients with the preparation of annual accounts, income tax and corporation tax returns, bookkeeping, payroll processing, business start-ups, international company formations, company secretarial, translation & proofreading services, and specialist taxation advice.”

So “SAS” is actually a “specialist taxation” firm based in Belize, also using the name “Exposure Limited”. Exposure is run by a Leo Rees-Evans and the company designed John Rees-Evans’ website.

What else do we know about Exposure / Systech Accounting Services? Online directories reveal Systech offers offshore bank accounts and offshore company incorporation. For a fee of €499, Systech boasts it will set you up with “the world’s leading offshore bank”. The directory also gives an address at a PO Box in Popovo, Bulgaria. Remember who else lived in rural Bulgaria? John Rees-Evans, at his famous high-security compound…

It seems odd that Rees-Evans has been so boastful about his varied career and never mentioned Systech Accounting Services and their offshore banking services. Just the other day Rees-Evans was talking at a hustings about how terrible it is when British taxpayers’ money “ends up in offshore bank accounts”. Unfortunately he hasn’t replied to Guido’s requests for comment. We’d need the real SAS to breach his compound to get to the bottom of it…