In brief
- Bankers reported a £5 million ($6.7 million) gift to Nigel Farage from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne to the UK’s National Crime Agency, the Guardian has reported.
- They filed a suspicious activity report in May 2024, saying they could not trace where the money ultimately came from; such a report is not proof of wrongdoing.
- Reporting on the SAR comes amid a standards investigation into whether Farage should have declared the gift, which he says he was under no obligation to do.
Nigel Farage’s £5 million gift from billionaire Tether investor Christopher Harborne was flagged to the UK’s National Crime Agency by bankers, the Guardian has reported.
The bankers filed a suspicious activity report, or SAR, with the agency on May 16 2024, according to the Guardian, which noted they were not satisfied they could trace the ultimate origin of the funds. A SAR is not proof of wrongdoing and is not the same as a crime report. It is a flag that invites the agency to examine a transaction and decide whether there are grounds for further investigation.
Harborne, a British, Thailand-based businessman who holds a 12% stake in USDT issuer Tether and sits sixth on the Sunday Times Rich List, has separately donated millions of pounds to Reform UK.
Banks pay close attention to transactions involving “politically exposed persons,” who are treated as carrying a higher risk of bribery or corruption. FCA guidance states that firms should apply a “risk-based and proportionate approach to PEPs when considering money laundering risks.” Harborne’s crypto holdings added to that risk in banking terms, the Guardian said, because money moved in and out of cryptocurrencies is harder to trace.
Farage told the paper he had not known about the SAR and had “no reason to doubt the ultimate source of the money.” He claimed the information had been “illegally obtained” by the newspaper, and said he was unaware of any discussions with the NCA about transactions involving him.
The NCA declined to confirm or deny to the Guardian that it had received any report, saying SARs are confidential and that breaching that confidentiality could amount to a “tipping off” offense under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Nigel Farage has been approached for comment.
The timing of the gift
Harborne’s lawyers told the Guardian that Farage received the money on April 5, 2024. But financial industry sources cited by the paper said at least some of the £5 million arrived after May 23, 2024, the day Farage announced he would not stand in that year’s general election, saying it was “not the right time for me.” He reversed course days later to run in Clacton.
That timeline, the Guardian noted, appears to clash with an account in a new book, “The Farage Factor” by Conservative peer Michael Ashcroft, which says Reform was already preparing to launch his candidacy by mid-May, having recruited a GB News producer to help promote a planned announcement event.
Farage has described the money as an “unconditional gift” and has given a variety of different explanations of what it was for, including security funding, a reward for his Brexit campaigning, and “nobody’s business,” saying he could spend it on Ferraris if he wanted.
Farage’s deepening crisis
Farage has argued he was under no obligation to declare the gift because he was not a politician when he received it. Per the Guardian’s reporting, he became a “person of significant control” of Reform’s corporate entity on May 1, 2024, and had been the party’s honorary president from March 2021 to June 2024.
Parliament’s standards commissioner is already investigating whether the failure to declare the money breached its rules, and Labour has accused him of evading scrutiny over the gift.
Hours before the Guardian‘s latest report, Farage said he would force a byelection in his Clacton seat, a move that appeared to backfire on Tuesday night as the Conservatives, Labour, the Greens, the Liberal Democrats and Restore Britain all said they would not field candidates, dismissing the contest as a “circus.”
If re-elected, Farage would still face the standards inquiry and any reprimand that follows.
Farage has also faced separate calls for an investigation into his “failure to declare financial support” from George Cottrell, a convicted fraudster with ties to an offshore crypto casino. The Reform UK leader has denied that the benefits needed to be declared, and Cottrell denies having expected anything in return.
