Chris Geoghegan introduced Gupta family to PR firm behind secret campaign to stir up racial tensions in South Africa

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The father of the Bell Pottinger executive at the centre of the South Africa scandal that brought down the City PR firm has resigned from his role as a board member of London-listed pest control and hygiene firm Rentokil Initial.

Chris Geoghegan – the father of 34-year-old Victoria Geoghegan who led the secret campaign that aimed to stir up racial tension in South Africa – has resigned as a non-executive director of Rentokil Initial where he was senior independent director and chair of the remuneration committee.



The 63-year-old, a former top executive at defence company BAE Systems, was responsible for introducing the wealthy and controversial Gupta family to Bell Pottinger in January 2016. He received a monthly fee from the agency for his services.



Chris Geoghegan Photograph: LinkedIn

Following the meeting Bell Pottinger took on a £100,000-a-month contract to work for Gupta-owned Oakbay Capital, led by Victoria Geoghegan, which resulted in the PR and social media campaign focusing on “economic apartheid” and “white monopoly capital” in South Africa.



The resignation of Geoghegan, who had only been at Rentokil since June last year, was announced by the company in a two-sentence statement on Monday.



Geoghegan, who was on the board of BAE Systems from 2000 to 2007 and worked as joint chief operating officer, has held a string of senior executive roles at Airbus and BAE since starting in the aerospace industry in the 1970s.

In July, Victoria Geoghegan was fired from Bell Pottinger at the same time as it made a U-turn, offering an “unequivocal and absolute apology” for an “inappropriate and offensive” social media campaign. The PR agency had initially maintained it was the victim of a smear campaign involving “totally false and damaging accusations”.

On Friday, the fallout of the scandal spread to the South African arm of KPMG, which audits companies owned by the Guptas, with the chief executive, chairman and a string of top executives resigning.

The resignations followed an investigation by KPMG International which said that while it did not find any evidence of “illegal behaviour or corruption” at the firm, it did find “work that fell considerably short of KPMG’s standards”.

KPMG donated the equivalent of 40m South African rand (£2.2m) – the fees earned from Gupta company work from 2002 – to not-for-profit groups working in education and the anti-corruption sector.

KPMG International’s report also investigated the firm’s work for the South African Revenue Service (SARS). KPMG offered to pay back the 23m South African rand (£1.28m) fee for its work, or donate the same amount to charity.

On Monday, Tom Moyane, commissioner of SARS, said that the body is to launch legal proceedings against KPMG over reputational damage caused by releasing details of the confidential report it produced for the tax agency.

Moyane said that KPMG will be reported to Malusi Gigaba, South Africa’s finance minister, with a view to blacklisting the company for its “unethical” and “unlawful” behaviour.

Earlier this month, Bell Pottinger was expelled from the UK PR trade body for at least five years, and was subsequently put into administration as a client exodus left it unable to pay debts.