Mysterious ‘El Money’ figure paid men to firebomb homes linked to Keir Starmer, court hears
A mysterious Russian-speaking figure known as “El Money” offered to pay three men to set fire to a car belonging to Sir Keir Starmer and two houses, the court heard.
Ukrainians Roman Lavrynovych, 22, Petro Pochynok, 35, and Romanian Stanislav Carpiuc, 27, are charged in connection with a series of fires in north London last spring.
Opening the Old Bailey trial on Wednesday, prosecutor Duncan Atkinson KC said: “It would be highly unusual to have three fires in the same area in five days.
“However, three fires involving properties belonging to the same person were beyond coincidence.
“The Rav4 car once belonged to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
“The house in Ellington Road was managed by a company of which the Prime Minister was once a director and shareholder, while the house in Countess Road was still owned by the Prime Minister and occupied by his sister-in-law.
“The evidence showed that there was no coincidence here.
“Rather, the vehicle and two properties in question were targeted and the acts of arson at these locations were planned and directed, with those involved promised to be paid for their participation.”
The defendants have denied conspiring to damage property in the fire, which broke out between April 1 and May 13 last year.
Lavrynovych is also charged with setting two property fires with intent to endanger life or being careless about endangering life on May 11 and 12 last year.
The court heard the first fire occurred in the early hours of May 8 when a Toyota Rav4 was set ablaze on Countess Road in the Kentish town.
It was claimed that on May 11, a fire broke out at the front door of a house converted into an apartment in Islington, north London.
The following day, another fire broke out at the house in Kentish Town where Sir Keir lived before becoming Prime Minister, and was carried to Downing Street.
Mr Atkinson said: “Lavrynovych had been offered payment to start the fires by a person using the name or alias ‘El Money’.
“El Money communicated in Russian, as opposed to the Ukrainian language used by the defendants.
Jurors at the Old Bailey were told they did not need to decide “what motivated” the defendants to arson properties linked to the Prime Minister.
“It doesn’t matter whether they knew the property they were targeting was linked to the Prime Minister or whether that was part of their motivation,” Mr Atkinson said.
They were also told not to care about who “El Money” was and why he decided to hire these people.
The court heard more than 320 messages between Lavrynovych and El Money dating back to September 2024 were intercepted.
Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson KC told jurors: “In each case Lavrynovych set fire to the front door of the house using white spirit or something similar.”
“The fires were started in the middle of the night, when residents would inevitably have been asleep.
“The prosecution’s claim is that when he did this, he must have intended to endanger and risk the lives of the people living in these houses.
“Why else would you set fire to the front door, preventing the residents from escaping?”
Lavrynovych, from Lewisham, south-east London, Carpiuc, from Romford, east London, and Pochynok, from Islington, north London, pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
The hearing before Mr Justice Garnham is expected to continue until the end of May.
