Sir Richard Branson, the man behind the Virgin empire, plans to mortgage his island in the tax haven British Virgin Islands to enable loans to save the airline Virgin Atlantic, according to Bloomberg News.

Richard Branson's private island, Necker Island, has been described as the apple of his eye. Now the island is about to be mortgaged in order to raise as much credit as possible to save the airlines Virgin Australia, which filed for restructuring yesterday, and its essentially equally troubled sister company Virgin Atlantic.

The financier has long been criticized in his home country of Britain for what many believe is tax evasion, despite Richard Branson himself claiming that it was his love for the Virgin Islands that was behind the move. Virgin Australia's appeal to the Australian government for an emergency package fell flat and politicians in Britain have not been slow to point fingers at the connection that a tax fugitive is now seeking government support for Virgin Atlantic in his home country.

”"Branson has not paid tax in this country for 14 years, so there is no chance he is entitled to any tax-funded bailout, preferential government loans or any other arrangement," Labour's economic policy spokesperson Diane Abbott wrote in a response to Virgin's appeal last week.

The British government has not yet given a final decision on the matter. 

The plan to mortgage the island is set out in a letter to employees, about 175 people who work on the island, according to Bloomberg. Richard Branson has mortgaged other assets during the pandemic such as antiques, diamonds and London properties.

Necker Island was worth more than $100 million before a hurricane swept across the island in 2017, according to private-island broker Farhad Vladi.

Richard Branson has previously said he will give $250 million of his personal wealth to support Virgin Atlantic. His fortune is estimated at about $5 billion, according to Bloomberg, a figure that is $2 billion lower than two months ago.

Source: Nyhetsbyrån Direkt