The troubling history of man behind #LabourLive protest group

The SKWAWKBOX has covered at some length the televised claims of a small group of protesters to have been ‘ejected’ from Saturday’s successful LabourLive event in London – and the video evidence and eyewitness testimony that challenges it.

The protest was organised by two anti-Brexit organisations – in fact, limited companies – one of which was Our Future Our Choice (OFOC), as protester Richard Brooks told Sky News:

OFOC is listed by Companies House with a single director, Olufemi Oluwole – but the company’s website pays fulsome tribute to its global chairman, Felix Marquardt:

Mr Marquardt, an Austro-American born in France, has been published by, among others, the Guardian newspaper. But his employment and ethical history are not without blemish.

For some years, Marquardt held a significant position at the International Herald and Tribune newspaper – but the CV on whose basis he won the job was made up:

Marquardt founded Kohiba Productions, a rap label, and  Kohiba Multimedia. In 2000, Kohiba Multimedia paid substantial damages to French socialist candidate Bertrand Delanoë for using his name to funnel internet traffic to a pornographic site:

This is the man of whom OFOC says,

OFOC UK would not be what it is without him.

The SKWAWKBOX contacted Mr Marquardt with details of these reports to ask for comment. A spokesperson responded to clarify that the damages award against Kohiba Media was FFR 50,000, not the FFR 120,000 mentioned by Liberation and said,

It was Felix who in an interview with Les Inrocks, freely disclosed the fact that he had exaggerated how long he had held the title of speechwriter on his CV prior to his hiring and eventually shared as much with his employer, who didn’t care.

Marquardt himself said:

I can confirm that I committed a number of stupid, childish deeds in my twenties. These had nothing to do with OFOC. Any attempt to harm the reputation of OFOC because, more than 15 years later, I gave them a modest hand when they were getting started will be as ill-fated as it is ill-conceived.

Mr Marquardt appears to be quite open about his problematic history. However, the mainstream media (MSM), should – in order to present a factual and impartial representation of the organisations behind the LabourLive protest and the subsequent claims, at least make a mention of the facts about the entities involved.

That has not, so far, been the case. The comments by Richard Brooks and others have been presented as factual without even a minimum of due diligence as to the accuracy of the claims or the nature and history of the entities involved.

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