US pay-to-play accusations spread to UK as Nigel Farage faces $6.8M crypto inquiry

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is under investigation by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner after he was accused of failing to declare a gift worth roughly £5 million ($6.75 million). 

Parliamentary disclosure rules dictate that members of parliament must declare any donations received in the year before an election within one month of taking office.

UK leader Nigel Farage dips into crypto 

The Conservative Party is alleging that Reform UK leader Nigel Farage broke House of Commons disclosure rules. Under current regulations, MPs must declare any donation or gift received in the year before an election within 30 days of taking office. However, Farage failed to declare a gift worth £5 million ($6.75 million) from a cryptocurrency billionaire.

The billionaire in question is Christopher Harborne, an early investor in Tether (USDT) and the Bitfinex exchange. Mr. Harborne, who lives in Thailand, is reportedly one of the largest donors in British political history who provided roughly two-thirds of Reform UK’s funding last year. 

Farage has acknowledged receiving the money from Harborne, but he insists it was a personal gift given to him for security costs before he announced his candidacy in the 2024 general election. The payment reportedly falls under a parliamentary exemption for “purely personal gifts.”

Cryptopolitan previously reported that Harborne donated over £10 million in installments to Farage’s Brexit Party ahead of its 2019 campaign, and paid £28,000 for Farage to attend the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Farage recently purchased £2 million in Bitcoin through Stack, a UK-listed Bitcoin treasury firm, making him the first sitting MP and first UK party leader to publicly buy Bitcoin.

Through his investment vehicle, Thorn In The Side Ltd, he purchased £2 million ($2.7 million) in shares of Stack BTC Plc (AQSE: STAK), a UK-listed firm that functions as a Bitcoin treasury. Farage currently holds a 6.31% stake in Stack.

Recently, Reform published a draft bill promising to deregulate the crypto industry and drastically cut taxes on digital asset transactions.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is currently reviewing a proposal to investigate whether or not Farage’s actions constitute attempted market abuse, like the liberal democrats claim, and has stated it will respond directly.

Pattern recognition in Washington

The accusations against Farage are similar to conflict-of-interest controversies that currently center on crypto-linked politicians in the United States.

Cryptopolitan previously reported several probes led by Democrats into President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago memecoin event in April for top purchasers of his $TRUMP memecoin. Richard Painter, a former ethics adviser to President George W. Bush, called Trump’s event “a dangerous conflict of interest” and a “use of public office for private gain.”

U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden sent letters this week to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, regarding an investigation into a reported loan from Tether to a trust benefiting Secretary Lutnick’s four children.

The senators wrote that the loan was arranged the day after Lutnick divested his stake in Cantor Fitzgerald to his children. They are investigating whether foreign crypto interests are attempting to “bribe or otherwise exert control or influence” over U.S. policy, specifically regarding the recent GENIUS Act stablecoin legislation. 

Tether also previously faced scrutiny from the Department of Justice for potential violations of anti-money laundering rules and sanctions.