Christopher Chandler became embroiled in controversy this year when UK MPs told parliament that the Kiwi-born businessman had links with Russian intelligence.
Chandler strongly denied the claims, made under parliamentary privilege, saying, “No, I’m not a Russian spy. I don’t speak Russian. I don’t know anybody in the Russian state thing.”
The Legatum Institute think tank, founded by Christopher Chandler and his partners in 2007 and now independent, also came under fire with British Labour MPs accusing it of advocating for a hard Brexit, something Legatum said was an “absurd accusation”.
In 2015 Chandler applied for EU citizenship via Malta, a gateway for wealthy foreign investors to secure the benefits of an EU passport.
Under Malta’s scheme, investors can obtain Maltese passports for a $1.2 million contribution to the national development fund and the purchase or lease of property, as well as investments of at least about $580,000 in stocks and bonds.
Chandler co-founded Dubai-based Legatum Group in 2006 after splitting off from a joint investment fund, Sovereign Global with his brother, Richard, to invest on his own.
Legatum is a private multibillion-dollar investment firm that puts money into companies in developing countries as well as the world’s capital markets.
Giving back to the community and promoting welfare in poor countries through funds and programmes has been Chandler’s personal philosophy, which has also become the corporate mantra of Legatum.
Chandler is one of three sons of a Waikato beekeeper, whose two brothers were shot down and killed in their Spitfires in World War II. Robert Chandler, the youngest, who had been a lieutenant on a Royal Navy minesweeper, returned to New Zealand after the war and set up a beekeeping operation and also built houses and apartments. With his Croatian-born wife, Marija, he raised three sons, George, Richard and Christopher in Matangi, east of Hamilton.
In the early 1970s, Robert and Marija bought a two-story retail building in Hamilton, putting $5000 down and taking out a $195,000 mortgage.
After renovating it, the couple launched Chandler House, which became New Zealand’s most upmarket furnishings store. In 1982, Richard and Christopher took over and expanded Chandler House to a 10-store chain. They eventually divested all stores and funnelled $10 million into launching investment fund Sovereign Global in 1986.
Their brother George is a retired accountant who reportedly moved to Canada.