Tether and Bitfinex shareholder Christopher Harborn has donated 9 million pounds ($12 million) to Nigel Farage’s right-wing party Reform UK, making it one of the largest political donations by a crypto investor in British history.
Reform UK also received donations of £50,000 from Viscountess Rothermere, wife of the owner of the Daily Mail, Britain’s biggest news organization, earlier this year, £500,000 from a well-known property developer and £100,000 from the founder of an investment company.
According to DonationsWatch, Harborn spent around 21 million pounds ($28 million) on donations to political parties, of which Reform UK (formerly the Brexit Party) received 19.1 million pounds.
The Conservative Party accepted that £1.6m from Herborn.
Read more: Bitfinex shareholder Christopher Harborn sues Wall Street Journal
The only donation to surpass Mr Harborn’s was from the late John Devan Sainsbury, who gave £10 million to the Conservative Party in his 2023 will.
Mr Farage attacks Bank of England with support from Mr Harbourne
Byline Times reported that Harborn’s donation was made in August. A month later, Farage appeared on British talk show LBC to voice his support for multibillion-dollar stablecoin company Tether and criticize the Bank of England over its proposed stablecoin regulations.
“The Governor of the Bank of England suggested earlier this week that no one, no individual, should be allowed to own any more assets,” Mr Farage told LBC. £10,000 worth of stablecoinsSome of my friends said, “Maybe I should move? ” he said. ”
Byline Times pointed out that Mr Farage did not reveal any financial information about Harbourne or these “friends” during his appearance on LBC.
Read more: Bitfinex, Tether shareholders paid Farage $40,000 for Trump visit after rally shooting
Mr Harborn, who also goes by the Thai name Chakrit Sakunkrit, has previously donated directly to Mr Farage so that he could attend President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
His son, William Harborn, is also the CEO of Rhino.fi, a stablecoin infrastructure company that partnered with Tether last year. Rhino.fi was previously called Ethfinex and was a sister company of Bitfinex and Tether before being spun out.
Farage’s inner circle involved in gambling syndicate
This week, one of Mr Farage’s unpaid aides, George Cottrell, was linked to a gambling syndicate run by billionaire gambler Tony Bloom.
High Court documents accuse Cottrell of acting as a front for a syndicate and causing bets to be placed through gambling accounts in Cottrell’s name.
Read more: Nigel Farage says shady alleged crypto ATM owner is ‘like a son to me’
Mr Cottrell was convicted of wire fraud in 2016 after collaborating with Mr Farage, who was active in Britain’s far-right party UKIP.
Based on evidence uncovered during the investigation, Cottrell is alleged to have attempted to launder £120,000 a month in drug trafficking proceeds.
Also Cottrell’s mother, Fiona Cottrell Donating £750,000 to Reform Britain from 2024.
As part of its pro-crypto image, Reform UK started accepting crypto donations this year. However, this week it was revealed that the UK’s Labor government plans to ban political donations made in cryptocurrencies.
This is due to growing concerns over the opaque nature of cryptocurrencies, which can make it difficult to verify the individuals behind donations, thereby exposing the process to potential foreign interference.
Discover more from Earlybirds Invest
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
