Paul Boateng, a civil rights lawyer and methodist preacher, was first elected as an MP for Brent South in London in 1987 and later became a rising star in the Tony Blair’s New Labour party.

A committed Blairite, he was soon appointed to ministerial posts first in the Department of Health and then the Home Office. In 2001, he became a cabinet minister after being selected as chief secretary to the Treasury - second in charge after the finance minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown.

He left his South Brent safe seat in 2005, and accepted a diplomatic post as Britain’s High Commissioner to South Africa. Four laters later he was forced to step down over allegations that his wife had abused the staff at the official residence in Cape Town. The following year he was appointed to the Lords.

Since joining the House of Lords, Boateng has taken positions on the boards of companies, including Gilead Sciences, Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund and Ghana International Bank in London. He also works with development and defence group, MRL Public Sector Consultants, as well as controversial defence and security firms, Aegis Defence Services and Protection Group International.

When we asked him about his relationship with Sobrinho, Boateng stated: “I do not comment on the business of my professional clients. Any suggestion that my relationship with Dr Sobrinho and his business was in any way improper has no basis in fact and would be wholly defamatory.”

He added that, “I and my fellow Trustees [of PEI] welcome the support of Dr Sobrinho for this and other charitable causes on the continent of Africa.”

Despite nearly seven years of operations and over seven million GBP budget in that time, PEI also appears to have achieved little of what it is purpose: advance education or provide PhDs funding to African scientists.

The first traces of a relationship between Sobrinho and Boateng appear in the summer of 2011 and the grand unveiling of Planet Earth Institute (PEI) in London. Sobrinho had established the charity the year before with a mission to “advance education” in Africa.

In a promotional video, he announced that PEI would provide “Africans” with opportunities to obtain PhDs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Sobrinho received a warm welcome. He attended the House of Lords in July 2011 to advertise the inauguration of the charity’s scientific board by Lord Bruce Grocott and Lord Paul Boateng, of Akyem in the Republic of Ghana and Wembley in London.

Grocott told EIC that, at the time, he was chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Angola, run from British think tank Chatham House, and that it was normal for Angolans to request meetings while they passed through London. It was rare, however, for businessmen to get in touch. Sobrinho was the first to request a photo op.

“The photo was the only part that I thought was strange,” Lord Grocott told EIC. “We did this one meeting for less than an hour, and then I never heard from him or of him again.”

To aid his mission, Sobrinho enrolled Professor Paul Lawrence Younger, an engineer and the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Newcastle University, and Sir Christopher Edwards, a clinician and former Vice-Chancellor at Newcastle. He also appointed his right-hand man, Portuguese manager Mauricio Fernandes, to run PEI.