The story begins 13 to 14 years ago, with the formation of a company called Theleme. One of the co-founders of Theleme is a man named Rishi Sunak. Who just so happens to now be the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

The company quickly made a “wise” investment, putting millions of dollars into a small biotech firm called Modern.

At the time, Moderna only had a handful of employees, but Theleme apparently saw the potential for growth.

Years passed, and the UK government suddenly found itself in need of a reliable Covid-19 vaccine whilst Sunak was Chancelor of the Exchequer.

When Moderna claimed that its vaccine candidate was 94.5% effective, the government immediately struck a deal to purchase 5 million doses.

As time passed, Theleme’s investment in Moderna continued to pay off.

By June 2022, Theleme had amassed over 6 million shares of Moderna stock, making it the company’s largest shareholder.

The UK government also coincidentally announced a 10-year partnership with Moderna within two months of Sunak becoming Prime Minister of the UK.

This deal has a huge financial benefit for Theleme, the company co-founded by Sunak. The partnership and increased demand for Moderna’s vaccines has caused the company’s stock price to skyrocket, resulting in a significant profit for Theleme, thanks to its large holding of Moderna shares.

Is this all just a coincidence, or does this 10-year deal struck with Moderna stink of corruption, lining the pockets of the UK Prime Minister at a cost to both the British Taxpayers’ wallets/purses and their health?

In his first public remarks as the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak said it was “the greatest privilege of my life to be able to serve the party I love and give back to the country I owe so much to.”

There are two remarkable phrases within this one statement.  First, Sunak considers it a privilege to “serve the party.”  Not to serve UK citizens, but to “serve the party.”

Secondly, “give back to the country I owe so much to.”

Born in Southampton, England, Sunak is one of the UK’s wealthiest politicians but chose to defend his wife who avoided paying taxes in the UK.

The BBC estimated Sunak’s wife avoided £2.1m a year in UK tax and a total of £15 million since 2015.  Meanwhile, Sunak and his wife were named on the Sunday Times rich list as the 222^nd wealthiest people in the UK.

Has he given back what he owes?

Further reading: Is Rishi Sunak the right person to lead the UK? Al Jazeera, 24 October 2022

Rishi Sunak was a hedge fund manager before he became a Member of Parliament and later Chancellor of the Exchequer.

He founded and worked at Theleme Partners LLP, which is a hedge fund management company based in London, UK.

Theleme Partners is known for its quantitative investment strategies that use mathematical models to identify profitable investments.

Sunak worked there as a Partner, and he was part of the team that invested money on behalf of the fund’s clients. He allegedly left the hedge fund in 2015 before entering politics.

However, the Daily Mail has reported that Sunak declined to say whether he still had a financial interest in Thélème. He claimed he did not know how his assets were being invested.

Further reading: Theleme Partners, Moderna and Rishi Sunak, Awkward Git’s Newsletter, 3 October 2022

But here’s where things get interesting.

Thélème Partners is a hedge fund that invested over $500 million in Moderna. And in November 2020, as soon as Moderna announced its Covid injection “could be up to 94.5 per cent effective,” the UK immediately made a deal to buy five million doses. Sunak was Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time.

Prior to founding Theleme, Sunak started out his working life as an analyst for the investment banking firm Goldman Sachs between 2001 and 2004.  Then in 2009, according to Sky History, he co-founded Thélème Partners.

In his previous bid to become Prime Minister, as a candidate alongside Liz Truss, Sunak championed his business career as an example of his success outside of politics.  But he faced questions about whether he exaggerated his work at hedge funds.

The UK’s financial regulatory body confirmed that Sunak wouldn’t have been able to directly complete any investments or deal with clients.  And Dr Devraj Basu, a senior lecturer in accounting and finance at Strathclyde University, suggested that, according to roles in Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) filings, Sunak had no role in investment management.

Thélème Partners

According to its website, Thélème currently has $880 million worth of assets under management. However other sources state a much more significant amount.

Whalewisdom notes that Thélème Partners’ largest holding is in Moderna with shares held of 6,354,406 and, “their last reported 13F filing for Q2 2022 included $2,495,526,000 in managed 13F securities” – almost $2,5 billion assets under management.

Further reading: Theleme Partners LL.P. 13F annual report, Wallmine

In June 2022, Yahoo Finance estimated the market value of Thélème’s shareholding in Moderna, alone, at $915 million and it was the 6^th top institutional investor in Moderna (Nasdaq: MRNA).

According to Whalewisdom, Thélème Partners is owned 75% or more by Theleme Services Ltd.  However, UK’s Companies House notes that Thélème Services Limited owns more than 50% but less than 75% of the shares in Theleme Partners.

75% or more of the shares in Thélème Services are held by Patrick Degorce.  So, effectively Degorce owns controlling shares of Thélème Partners.

In 2011, Theleme was one of the earliest investors in Moderna, when Moderna only had about ten employees. As the Wall Street Journal reported in October 2020, when Degorce started investing in Moderna, it was valued at around $125 million.

“Now the company is worth more than $27 billion, more than many drugmakers with medicines already on the market, even though it has no product revenue.”

Wikipedia states that Degorce was in the French navy before switching to financial services. In 2003, Degorce was a co-founder, along with Chris Hohn, of The Children’s Investment Fund Management (TCIF) hedge fund.  It was his role at this hedge fund, TCIF, that Sunak discussed during interviews and that Dr. Basu suggested Sunak in fact had no role in investment management.

But here’s where things get even more interesting.

Sunak was appointed Prime Minister of the UK on October 31st 2022. Then, within two months of his Premiership, his Government announced that they had cemented a 10-year-partnership with Moderna in what it hailed as a “major boost for vaccines and research”.

The Department of Health and Social Care announced the partnership would mean –

• NHS patients will have access to a UK-made supply of COVID-19 jabs as well as cutting-edge vaccines developed for other respiratory diseases, such as flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
• The creation of more than 150 jobs and further future-proof the UK against potential pandemics, with patients benefiting from speedy access to the latest advancements in vaccine technology.

So in the space of 12 years, we have seen:

Theleme, a company co-founded by Sunak invest millions in Moderna, when Moderna only had about ten employees.

The UK Government immediately do a deal to buy five million doses of Moderna’s Covid-19 injection as soon as Moderna announced its Covid injection “could be up to 94.5 per cent effective,” whilst Sunak was Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Theleme, make Moderna the company in which it holds the most shares at 6,354,406 in June 2022.

And the UK Government announce that they have cemented a 10-year-partnership with Moderna in what has been hailed as a “major boost for vaccines and research”. But it is also a major boost for Moderna’s share price and therefore a major boost to the profits that the company Theleme, co-founded by Rishi Sunak, earns due to its largest holding being Moderna with over 6.3 million shares.

All of this could just be one big coincidence of course.

But we’ve seen enough alleged “coincidences” over the past few years to last a lifetime.

This 10-year deal struck with Moderna stinks of corruption and it is lining the pockets of the UK Prime Minister at a cost to both the British Taxpayers’ wallets/purses and their health.