{"id":656620,"date":"2026-06-25T00:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T00:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/656620\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T00:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T00:44:11","slug":"nigel-farage-referred-to-financial-regulator-over-donations-from-crypto-billionaire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/656620\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigel Farage referred to financial regulator over donations from crypto-billionaire"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Nigel Farage<\/a> has been referred to the Financial Conduct Authority<\/a> (FCA) over claims his cryptocurrency advocacy has benefited his billionaire backer<\/a>, Christopher Harbone.<\/p>\n

The Reform UK leader has previously insisted the millions donated by the Thailand-based crypto investor<\/a> was gifted to him and the party with the expectation of \u201cabsolutely nothing in return at all<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

But the Chair of the Labour Party has now written to the financial regulator calling for an investigation into whether Mr Farage\u2019s efforts to promote cryptocurrencies<\/a> and stablecoins may have benefited Mr Harborne.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Farage\u2019s public advocacy for stablecoins and cryptoassets raises issues within the FCA\u2019s remit,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe letter, written by Chair of the Labour Party Anna Turley, refers to reports Mr Farage used a private meeting with the Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, to argue against a proposed central bank digital currency and restrictions on stablecoins (PA)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has publicly praised the stablecoin Tether, attacked measures that could limit the growth of private stablecoins, and argued that the United Kingdom should become a global centre for cryptoasset activity. At the same time, he and his political party are both being funded directly by people with financial interests in cryptocurrencies. <\/p>\n

\u201cI therefore urge you to investigate Nigel Farage\u2019s apparent efforts to use his public role to benefit those who have contributed to him financially.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter, written by Chair of the Labour Party Anna Turley, refers to reports Mr Farage used a private meeting with the Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, to argue against a proposed central bank digital currency and restrictions on stablecoins.<\/p>\n

The letter claims the introduction of a central bank digital currency could reduce the demand for other cryptocurrencies, such as Tether, in which Mr Harborne reportedly holds shares in.<\/p>\n

\"ChristopherChristopher Harborne gave \u00a39m to Reform (Christopher Harborne)<\/p>\n

A day before the meeting with Mr Bailey in September 2025, he specifically referred to Tether as an example of a stablecoin in an interview with LBC.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m going to go tomorrow [to the Bank of England] to say this. You know, Tether is a stablecoin,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cStablecoins are the way which money goes from conventional currencies through into cryptocurrencies and back again. Tether is about to be valued as a $500 billion company, you know, stablecoins, crypto, this world is enormous. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been urging for years that London should embrace it, we should become a global trading centre for this stuff under proper regulation.<\/p>\n

\"NigelNigel Farage continues to face questions over an undeclared \u00a35 million gift from a major Reform UK donor (Yui Mok\/PA) (PA Wire)<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the governor of the Bank of England earlier this week indicated that nobody, no individual should be allowed to have more than \u00a310,000 worth of stablecoins, to which some of my friends have said, \u2018Why don\u2019t we just emigrate?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy is the Bank so out of touch? Why is it behaving like a dinosaur? Why not get with the 21st century? These new technologies aren\u2019t going away. They\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter goes on the say Tether had been pursuing a fundraising round in the same month the interview took place.<\/p>\n

Mr Harborne\u2019s donations to Mr Farage and Reform UK have been a subject of particular controversy for the party, after he gifted it \u00a39m last August \u2013 the biggest single donation in history to a political party from a living person \u2013 and a further \u00a33m this year.<\/p>\n

Mr Farage\u2019s recent disclosure of the \u00a35m \u201cgift\u201d from the crypto entrepreneur has also prompted an investigation by Westminster\u2019s standards watchdog into whether Mr Farage broke Commons rules by not declaring it after his election in 2024. The investigation is still ongoing.<\/p>\n

Reform UK and the FCA have been approached for a comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-656620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}