Reform UK given record £36m donation by British crypto billionaire

Reform has been given a record £36m donation by Ben Delo, a British cryptocurrency billionaire convicted in the US for failing to implement adequate anti-money laundering controls.

The businessman, who has moved back to the UK from Hong Kong, is now the biggest UK political donor by far, dwarfing the £15m contribution to Reform UK from Thailand-based donor Christopher Harborne.

The huge donation will be a boost for Nigel Farage at a time when he is facing a police investigation into overseas funding for Reform, plus a standards inquiry into a £5m undeclared personal gift from Harborne.

It had been thought Delo could be caught by the overseas cap requiring donors to have been resident in the UK for 12 months before giving more than £100,000 but Reform insisted earlier this month that they were confident Delo would not have to hand back any cash.

Delo was convicted in the US in 2022 for failing to implement adequate anti-money laundering controls in his trillion-dollar cryptocurrency business BitMEX, before being pardoned by Donald Trump. He has previously given Reform £8m since the start of the year.

His gifts show the rise of Reform’s mega-donors, which Labour has been considering clamping down on.