Imran Khan Clears Party Debts by Spread Betting

Story by George Oborne on 2011-10-12 15:08:37

Imran Khan's latest book, Pakistan: A Personal History, reveals how Imran paid of the debts of his political party by spread betting.

Khan claims that he has never bet and does not understand the appeal of partaking in such activities. However, during his marriage to Jemima Goldsmith, Khan has admitted that he spent two days spread betting with his Brother in law whilst watching England play South Africa.

Imran Khan is founder of the Tehreek-e-Insaf party in Pakistan and has received much media attention despite the fact that the party holds just one of the 272 elected seats in parliament. Khan's own fame is largely the reason for this and he has spent much of his post cricketing career promoting his party's aims.

However, he explains in his latest book, how he and his brother in law Ben Goldsmith made enough money in just two days to pay off his entire party's debts as well as Ben Goldsmith's gambling debts. By spread betting on the number of runs both England and South Africa would score, the two men made large sums of money. So much so that Goldsmith's bookmaker at one point actually rang him up and asked him if he was taking advice from Imran.

This happened during a period when Imran Khan was still married to Jemima Goldsmith. The couple were married for nine years between 1995 and 2004, during which time Imran spent at least four months a year in England.

Whilst Khan claim that all he did was give Ben Goldsmith 'tips' on the cricket, he does seem to have profited from those two days, much to the benefit of the Tehreek-e-Insaf party.