A billionaire backer of GB News has been awarded $8m (£6m) in damages after he was falsely accused of being a Russian spy.

Christopher Chandler, a co-founder of the Legatum investment group, has secured the payout after succeeding in a defamation case against Donald Berlin, a private investigator in the US.

The dispute concerned a so-called dodgy dossier produced by Mr Berlin in 2003 that wrongly accused the GB News investor of “money laundering, organised crime and other misconduct tied to Russian interests”, according to court papers.

At the time, Mr Berlin had been instructed to produce the report for a client who wanted to know more about Mr Chandler’s background, including his investments in Russia. 

The false claims were later repeated by several MPs in 2018 during a debate over sanctions and money laundering, including by Labour’s Chris Bryant MP, who was forced to retract his comments.

Bob Seely, a former Conservative MP and was previously a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, also used parliamentary privilege at the time to wrongly claim that Mr Chandler could be “vulnerable to malign influence”.

Mr Chandler has consistently denied wrongdoing.

Following the latest ruling from a federal court in Washington DC, Mr Chandler told The Telegraph: “False allegations that were made about me more than 20 years ago came to my attention in 2017 when they were resurrected and repeated by a few Members of Parliament.

“They did so under the protection of parliamentary privilege, which then unleashed a media storm that spread a baseless, false and damaging narrative.

“This case has lasted six long years. I am grateful for this total vindication by the US federal court which has finally set the record straight, finding that all the allegations against me were entirely false.

“While the legal process has now concluded and the allegations against me were deemed by the court to be ‘a complete fabrication’, much of the damage to my reputation is irrecoverable.”

Mr Chandler, who first kicked off defamation proceedings six years ago, said he would put the $8m in damages towards funding Legatum’s philanthropic endeavours.

He said: “Although the lies may continue to circulate on social media platforms, I intend to put this financial compensation to good use by continuing to support Legatum’s prosperity mission, supporting individuals and communities to live more prosperous lives.”

Legatum was first announced as an investor in GB News in August 2022, teaming up with Sir Paul Marshall’s All Perspectives investment fund to bankroll the outspoken broadcaster’s attempt to take on traditional rivals such as the BBC.

Meanwhile, Mr Chandler, who grew up in New Zealand and built his fortune with investments in countries such as Hong Kong, Brazil and Korea, founded Legatum in 2007.

As well as serving as a private investment fund, Legatum – which is based in Dubai – also runs a separate UK-based think tank.

This Right-leaning think tank, called The Legatum Institute, has since established close links to the Conservative Party and supported key issues such as Brexit.