Bell Pottinger Private (legally BPP Communications Ltd.) was a British multinational public relations, reputation management and marketing company headquartered in London, United Kingdom.

Bell Pottinger offered services such as lobbying, speech writing, reputation management, and search engine optimisation to clients including companies, governments and rich individuals.

According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the company was hired by the Pentagon to work in Iraq, making fake terror and news-style videos, targeting al-Qaeda, for the reported sum of $540 million.

[19] There was an exodus of major clients and other senior staff,[19][20] with the result that many onlookers thought the UK firm was highly likely to close,[15][21] while operations in the Middle and Far East could be sold to new owners.

[46] Bell Pottinger Private acquired Centreground Political Communications Limited, founded by former Tony Blair adviser Darren Murphy, in June 2014.

[2] He later (July 2017) claimed that he had left the company partly due to concerns over its "smelly" activities for a South African client, Oakbay Investments.

[57] On 6 December 2011, the British national newspaper The Independent ran a front-page story based on covert filming by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism which the paper claimed revealed executives from Bell Pottinger boasting of ways in which they performed reputation laundering for countries accused of human rights violations.

[58] Posing as representatives of a fake investment body linked to the Uzbekistan government, the journalists had filmed a presentation at which Bell Pottinger executives explained techniques used on behalf of their clients, which at one point Tim Collins of Bell Pottinger – who has close connections with Prime Minister David Cameron, Edward Llewellyn, and Steve Hilton – referred to as "dark arts".

[60][61] During a meeting with reporters, David Wilson – the chairman of Bell Pottinger Public Relations – had stated: "We had a team working in the President's office.

[59]The allegations of Bell Pottinger directly influencing the British Prime Minister and other senior Government figures on behalf of private sector clients led to calls from the opposition Labour Party for the Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell to launch an investigation, and from the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency for the immediate introduction of a statutory register of lobbyists.

[63] In December 2011, it came under public scrutiny after managers were secretly recorded talking to fake representatives of the Uzbek government[64] and violating Wikipedia rules by removing negative information and replacing it with positive spin.

[65][66] On 8 December 2011, the UK national newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported that some Wikipedia user accounts allegedly linked to Bell Pottinger had been suspended.

As part of the project Bell Pottinger created fake videos that were approved by General David Petraeus and that appeared to be the work of Al-Qaeda.

[87][88] The firm was also reported to have manipulated Wikipedia on behalf of its clients in South Africa in 2016, including Oakbay Investments, affecting the company's relationships with other agency customers.

Rupert ended the contract after accusing Bell Pottinger of running a social media campaign against him, to divert attention away from persistent "state capture" allegations leveled at the Gupta family.

[94] On 19 March 2017, the South African Sunday Times alleged that Bell Pottinger was behind a social media strategy, using a network of fake bloggers, commentators and Twitter users, in an attempt to influence public opinion, exacerbate racism, and sow racial division in South Africa, as well as targeting media and personalities that were opposed to the Gupta family, on their clients' behalf.

Nick Lambert, senior advisor at Bell Pottinger, was also said to have prepared "key moments" for a speech by African National Congress (ANC) Youth League leader Collen Maine.

[105] DA spokesperson Phumzile van Damme said Bell Pottinger tried to divide and conquer South Africans by abusing racial tensions in a bid to keep Jacob Zuma and his party, the ANC, in power despite ongoing reports of "state capture" by the Gupta family.

[17][18] The company also lost its second-largest investor (Chime), as well as experiencing an exodus of major clients and senior staff, due to the growing scandal.

[19][20] In September 2017 Herbert Smith Freehills concluded that the firm had breached ethical standards, lacked appropriate policies for managing controversial accounts, and had brought the PR industry into disrepute.

[22][23][119] In addition to staff who had previously left the firm, some in disgust at its South African work, around 180 partners and employees were reported to be losing their jobs.

[120] Potential buyers of the disgraced company were reported to be deterred by high levels of debt on the firm's balance sheet; it had £15.7m-worth of liabilities at the end of August, including a £6.8m loan from a UK clearing bank.

[124] Shareholders were reported to be considering taking legal action against former Bell Pottinger directors for not disclosing the scale of the problem in South Africa, claiming that this non-disclosure affected their participation in a share buy-back in early 2017.

[125] In January 2018, former Bell Pottinger partners were reported to be angry at the £900,000 fees paid to law firms and administrator BDO for winding down the company.

[126] Two former partners – Nick Lambert and Victoria Geoghegan, both involved with the Oakbay project – were reported to be considering legal action,[127][128] through lawyers Mishcon de Reya.

[130][131] In October 2018, the Times reported that around 40 former Bell Pottinger partners faced a £4m demand from the company's liquidator, BDO,[28] with Henderson asked to repay £400,000.

[30] BDO said it would talk to creditors, owed a combined £14m, about launching claims, adding that it could also sue Lord Bell over his comments to the BBC before the company's collapse.

Liquidators were also pursuing an unnamed partner for an additional sum, with litigation alleging breach of contract and "significant and related excess drawings".

[141] Before the end of October, a further five ex-Bell Pottinger staff had joined Pagefield, with others going to agencies including FleishmanHillard Fishburn, FTI Consulting, Lansons and Tulchan Communications.

[137] In June 2020, Consulum, founded by two former Bell Pottinger employees, Tim Ryan and Matthew Gunther Bushell, was appointed by the Hong Kong government to counter negative coverage of the territory in the international media.