Invoices seen by the Guardian show that Harvey Boulter, the private equity boss at the heart of the growing controversy engulfing Fox, was paying £10,000 a month to lobbyists for help that included brokering the meeting with Fox through Adam Werritty, who claimed to be an "adviser to the Rt Hon Dr Fox MP".
This latest revelation comes as Fox finally admitted on Sunday that it had been "wrong" for him to meet Boulter, a commercial partner of the Ministry of Defence, in Dubai's five-star Shangri-la hotel without any officials present.
"I accept that it was a mistake to allow distinctions to be blurred between my professional responsibilities and my personal loyalties to a friend," he said. "I am sorry for this."
Fox's apology to the prime minister came two months after the Guardian first asked him to explain his relationship with Werritty, who appears to have been operating in Fox's shadow for a decade.
David Cameron and Fox spoke on the phone on Sunday morning following a fresh slew of allegations that Fox had allowed Werritty to accompany him on official visits.
No 10 stressed that the prime minister did not want to lose his defence secretary and would do what he could to keep him in place.
After the conversation with Cameron, Fox issued a statement admitting he had made mistakes and apologising for allowing proper distinctions to be blurred.
His remarks, bound to face fierce scrutiny from Labour during Commons defence questions on Tuesday, in effect amount to an admission that he breached the ministerial code, which requires him not to act in a way that would allow the impression of a conflict of interest to occur.
But Fox insisted no wrongdoing had taken place. He promised to tighten procedures to avoid any repetition. He will know he is in the political danger zone, but be buoyed by the signs of support from Number 10 after a weekend in which it appeared that Cameron was slowly removing his support.
Fox said: "At no stage did I or my department provide classified information or briefings to Mr Werritty or assist with his commercial work – let alone benefit personally from this work. Nevertheless, I do accept that given Mr Werritty's defence-related business interests, my frequent contacts with him may have given an impression of wrongdoing, and may also have given third parties the misleading impression that Mr Werritty was an official adviser rather than simply a friend. I have learned lessons from this experience."
Yesterday the defence secretary told David Cameron that he was "kicking himself for his own stupidity" in having a meeting with a defence contractor with no official present.
The meeting in Dubai had been set up by his friend, best man and one time business partner who handed out cards claiming to be one of his advisers.
After long conversations with officials at Number 10 on Sunday Dr Fox conceded that "it was a mistake to allow distinctions to be blurred between my professional responsibilities and my personal loyalties to a friend".
As well as being sorry the defence secretary is angry. He believes that the allegations he is facing originate in a complex American courtroom battle involving the man he met in Dubai - Harvey Boulter, chief executive of Porton Capital - whom he describes as "an utterly incredible witness".
When Liam Fox faces the Commons he will find that Labour are less interested in that and, indeed, his apology and more interested in getting full answers about what precise role his friend played, whether he was ever warned by officials or senior military figures about it and why he has continually changed his story.
Dr Fox seems confident of surviving in his job but he also knows that today is unlikely to be the end of his troubles.
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