Negative Findings
What the investigation did NOT find — equally important for accuracy and credibility
No West Bank Settlement Connection
All Gold Wynn Israel properties are in Tel Aviv and Herzliya — within Israel’s pre-1967 borders. No overlap with the OHCHR database of 156 companies operating in Israeli settlements. No evidence of any Shooter entity operating in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Source: OHCHR database, OpenSanctions CSV — 156 companies cross-referenced.
No Direct Council Contract Conflicts
Searched 1,000 Barnet council contracts (2015–2022) against all 30+ known Shooter entities, associates, and addresses. Zero matches. No evidence that any Shooter company or associate received council contracts.
Source: CSV analysis of Barnet contracts dataset.
No CFI / BICOM / JNF Membership
No public evidence that Mark Shooter is or was a member of Conservative Friends of Israel, BICOM (Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre), Jewish National Fund, or Board of Deputies of British Jews. His school contemporary Alan Howard is a CFI director, but no direct membership for Shooter was found.
No Direct Shooter-Howard Business Relationship
Despite attending the same school and both working in derivatives/hedge funds, no direct business or financial relationship between Mark Shooter and Alan Howard has been documented. The connections are through Shooter’s brothers (Simon started at Brevan Howard; Ben had Brevan Howard as his biggest client).
No Israel Embassy / Government Contact
No evidence of trips to Israel paid for by external organisations, contacts with the Israeli embassy, or any formal relationship with the Israeli government.
No Direct Evidence of Improper Pension Fund Investments
While the overlap between Shooter’s pension fund chairmanship and Gold Wynn directorship raises legitimate conflict-of-interest questions, no direct evidence was found that the Barnet Pension Fund made investments specifically benefiting Shooter or his business interests.
Offshore Entities Not in ICIJ Leaks
None of the three offshore entities (Geonnais Investments, London & Midlands, Solarstone) appear in the ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database (Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Pandora Papers, Bahamas Leaks). Their corporate service providers do appear, but at the scale of those providers this is unremarkable.
No Barnet Council Procurement Irregularities
The contracts dataset showed no patterns directly linking to Shooter. While Vallectric and W G Wigginton dominated fire safety contracts (£20M+ combined), no connection to Shooter was identified.
Strategic Value of Negative Findings
Negative findings are as important as positive ones:
- They protect the credibility of the investigation by not overclaiming
- They define the boundaries of what can and cannot be alleged
- They prevent the investigation from being dismissed because of one inaccurate claim
- They identify where further investigation (FOI, financial disclosure) might yield results