Farage Faces Double Scandal Over Fraudster Gifts and Tether Lobbying at Bank of England

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has been accused in two separate crypto-linked stories: undisclosed gifts from a convicted fraudster and pressure on the Bank of England on behalf of a Tether investor. Both cases are being investigated separately, but they involve the same circle of people.

What happened

On Saturday The Sunday Times reported that Farage received undisclosed benefits from George Cottrell, an aristocrat and adviser to the politician for more than 10 years. In 2016 Cottrell was arrested in the US on 21 counts tied to a money laundering scheme, and after a plea deal he pleaded guilty to a single wire fraud charge. He served eight months in prison.

A day earlier, The Guardian reported on a separate complaint. Labour MP Phil Brickell, who chairs the parliamentary group on anti-corruption, asked the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Daniel Greenberg, to examine whether Farage lobbied on behalf of Christopher Harborne to Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey.

Who is involved

Cottrell is linked to the offshore crypto casino Tether.bet, which runs on the Tether stablecoin. Harborne, a British billionaire based in Thailand, holds a 12% stake in Tether, ranks sixth on the Sunday Times Rich List and is Reform UK's biggest donor.

A second Labour MP, Joe Powell, separately asked Bailey to disclose details of a private meeting with Farage. Farage himself has publicly championed crypto in the UK parliament for more than a decade.

He appeared at the Bitcoin 2025 conference holding his party's draft legislation and promised to make Britain the "world's premier hub for cryptocurrency". Reform UK became the first British party to accept donations in Bitcoin, and Farage himself has proposed cutting capital gains tax on crypto assets from 24% to 10% and creating a Bitcoin reserve at the Bank of England.

Details of both cases

According to The Sunday Times, Farage received a range of benefits from Cottrell before his election as an MP in July 2024:

• drivers and security staff, mostly former soldiers
• three staff members to handle social media
• use of a rented five-story house near Buckingham Palace
• he officially registered only one benefit, under 9,300 pounds for a trip to Belgium

Brickell's complaint concerns a September 2025 meeting at which Farage reportedly urged Bailey to drop plans for a digital pound, known as "Britcoin". Last week the Bank of England did scrap a proposed 20,000 pound cap on individual stablecoin holdings. The cap was meant to slow an outflow of bank deposits into stablecoins, but the industry criticized it as too strict for mainstream use of digital assets. Farage claimed credit for the change. The Bank did not officially confirm this. Harborne previously gave Farage an undisclosed 5 million pound ($6.7 million) gift ahead of the 2024 election, two further 25,000 pound payments for trips to the US and the Chagos Islands, and Reform UK received an additional 15 million pounds from him between August 2025 and February 2026.

"This is not simply a debate about cryptocurrency. It is about whether an MP who has received millions from one individual should be lobbying for policies that could increase the value and profitability of that donor's investments."

- Phil Brickell, Labour MP, chair of the parliamentary anti-corruption group, in comments to The Guardian

Reaction

Farage called the Sunday Times report a "hit job" and said he "followed the rules". Reform UK called the broader allegations "utter rubbish", while Harborne and Farage maintain the gift was unconditional. The Bank of England confirmed the September meeting but called it routine engagement and has not published any minutes.

This is the second time Farage has faced claims over undisclosed payments from crypto-linked figures. In March the UK Treasury temporarily banned political donations made in cryptocurrency. Greenberg has not given a timeline for the review. If the findings confirm wrongdoing, parliament can impose sanctions ranging from a reprimand to a temporary suspension of the MP. The investigation is ongoing.