Reform has accepted almost £45,000 in donations from an entrepreneur who has had several run-ins with the law
Reform has accepted almost £45,000 in donations from Keith Beekmeyer, an insurance entrepreneur who a High Court judge said told “deliberate lies” in a case and was charged with violating US securities laws last year.
As reported in the Financial Times, Beekmeyer has made several donations to Nigel Farage’s party this year, amounting to £44,511.
Most of the donations went towards covering the cost of an office for Reform in Epping, where Beekmayer owns a property.
The donations included £34,713 worth of office decoration, £544.46 of office furniture, £6,253.87 of office rent and £3,000 in cash.
Beekmeyer owns property near the Bell Hotel in Epping. Over the summer, anti-migrant protests took place there after a hotel resident was convicted of sexual assault and deported.
Last year, Beekmeyer and his company Newpoint Financial Corp were charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over disclosure violations related to a reverse takeover.
The commission said that Beekmeyer had failed to properly disclose his ownership of Newpoint.
In September 2024, Beekmeyer and Newpoint agreed to pay $25,000 and $250,000, respectively, to settle the civil charges. They did not admit or deny the claims against them.
In 2021, a former director sued Beekmeyer’s NFG Capital for unpaid salary and benefits.
The High Court judge found Beekmeyer told “deliberate lies”, described him as “an unsatisfactory and unreliable witness” and ordered the company to pay the claimed sums.
The British businessman has also been embroiled in regulatory disputes.
In November 2022, Beekmeyer’s Newpoint Financial Corp sued the Bermuda Monetary Authority after the agency blocked its attempt to buy a reinsurer.
The BMA had said that “Newpoint Companies” had “provided information which is not accurate and is misleading as to the status of the Newpoint Companies’ current ownership and regulatory status”.
The authority added that it considered Newpoint Financial Corp “unlikely to comply with directions or other regulatory obligations imposed upon”. The BMA also said the company failed to meet eligible capital rules.
The agency also said Newpoint Financial Corp was not a “fit and proper” person to control the reinsurer, according to a BMA letter quoted in the lawsuit.
Commenting on Beekmeyer’s donations to Reform, Labour MP Liam Byrne, chair of the business and trade select committee, said: “You judge political parties by the company they keep — and this is the wrong company.”
He added: “When political parties take gifts from people linked to wrongdoing, it corrodes trust and drags our democracy into disrepute.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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