An MP breached Parliament’s ethics code by failing to declare a £150,000 loan from a Russian-born businessman for his mortgage deposit.
David Warburton took the money from a Seychelles-based firm belonging to Roman Joukovski in 2017 after he and his wife tried to turn their old home into a buy-to-let.
The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards found the MP - who is suspended from the Tories over a separate sleaze probe - broke the MPs’ code of conduct twice.
He failed to register the loan with Parliament’s authorities - then failed to declare it when he wrote a reference for Mr Joukovski to the Financial Conduct Authority in 2021.
But Mr Warburton will face no punishment after he “apologised without reservation” for both “inadvertent” breaches.
The Commissioner also decided he did not breach rules on lobbying by sending the reference to the FCA.
The MP had insisted he was acting in a personal capacity for his “friend”, who he met in the Polo Bar of Mayfair's Westbury Hotel.
The Commissioner agreed he had not been trying to “confer a financial or material benefit” on the financier.
Mr Warburton and his wife were reported to have turned a £1.2million home in Oakhill, Somerset, with a hot tub, games room, gym and wine cellar, into an Airbnb.
He told the Commissioner: “My wife and I had a property from which we wanted to move and then rent out before selling it.
“Our funds for the buy-to-let mortgage deposit fell short, but high street or commercial lenders don't provide unsecured loans for £150,000 (except possibly to the very wealthy).
“We tried bridging finance, but they all require a second charge over the property which the mortgage company would not accept.
“Talking socially to Roman about this, he said that he might be willing to provide the funds through a commercial loan from his business, as he was a good friend and I was stuck.”
The MP insisted it was a full commercial loan with an 8% interest rate. It was repaid in March this year.
Mr Warburton then “tried to help [Mr Joukovski] in connection with his difficulties with the FCA” in 2021 after he “got to know him a little more”, he told the investigation.
The MP wrote to the FCA on his Parliamentary headed paper: “In my judgement he is extremely capable and an honest and straightforward person whom I trust.”
Yet he insisted this was unrelated to the loan he had from Mr Joukovski’s firm, or “anything to do with Parliament or my being an MP”. He apologised for “thoughtlessly” using his official stationery.
Mr Warburton said: “I fully accept the Commissioner’s findings, including that I did not breach paragraph 12 of the code of conduct [on lobbying], and I am happy to have the loan added to the register retrospectively.
“I have sent my apologies to the Commissioner for overlooking this and the Commissioner now considers this matter closed.”
Mr Warburton is still under a separate investigation by Parliament’s Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme.
He was suspended by the Tories in April after two women were said to have accused him of unwanted sexual comments and sexual touching.
Around the same time, claims also emerged that Mr Warburton climbed naked into a woman’s bed and groped her breasts after snorting cocaine.
An image emerged showing the MP for Somerset and Frome sitting next to an upturned baking tray with four lines of powder on it – alleged by the Sunday Times to be cocaine.
The MP said at the time: “I have enormous amounts of defence, but unfortunately the way that things work means that doesn’t come out first.” He declined to comment further on the ongoing case tonight.
