It's quite the most extraordinary speech I think I've ever come across. It was given by Lord James of Blackheath, a respected industrialist and a former senior adviser to the Conservative party.

James was speaking in the Lords debate on the spending review. You might expect him to touch on the issue of government waste, which he is known for politically. Not a bit of it.

James's speech begins with Brigadoon, moves on to money laundering billions of pounds of terrorist money and ends with the claim that he has been contacted about a mysterious "Foundation X" that wishes to invest £5bn in the United Kingdom, with an extra £17bn for hospitals, schools and Crossrail by Christmas, and who have met with a cabinet minister to discuss their investment. Intriguing, isn't it?

So here's the skinny.

As an expert in the laundering of terrorist finance and funny money who has "handled billions of pounds of terrorist money", James claims he was asked by a leading FSA regulated institution to investigate a mysterious organisation that wanted to invest substantial sums into the UK's economic reconstruction.

This body, which he calls "Foundation X", apparently has huge reserves of gold bullion-backed funds. On some estimates, these funds amount to more than the entire gold bullion mined from the earth. With such great wealth, Foundation X is understandably secretive and only wishes to discuss the disbursement of its funds with a head of state or one of the "top six people in the world". So for 20 weeks, James investigated the foundation. He came to the conclusion that "Foundation X is completely genuine and sincere and that it directly wishes to make the United Kingdom one of the principal points that it will use to disseminate its extraordinarily great wealth into the world".

Having come to this conclusion, James wished to expedite this investment. So he secured a meeting for representatives of Foundation X with the leader of the House of Lords, Lord Strathclyde. This was held some weeks ago and was, at best, inconclusive. Since then, James has discussed Foundation X in detail with Treasury ministers and now believes the government is dragging its heels and missing a major opportunity to drive forward the UK economy.

Now, you might think this is all barmy. After all, mystery foundations with vast quantities of gold bullion-backed securities to invest in the British economy don't come along every day. It's tempting to think that James has been the victim of a particularly convincing Nigerian email scam.

But if it is madness, it is madness that has reached the highest levels of government.

After all, not only have members of Foundation X met with the leader of the House of Lords, the Treasury minister, Lord Sassoon, confirmed that he has been in "detailed discussions" on this subject with James, adding that the government "take seriously anyone who wants to invest in our economy".

So what on earth is going on? One thing is for sure.

The truth is out there.

• This blog was originally published on Hopi Sen's blog and is reproduced here with his permission.