Ben Delo has said he will move back to the UK from Hong Kong to donate millions more to Reform
Ben Delo, a billionaire convicted in the US of failing to implement anti-money laundering controls in his cryptocurrency business, has said he has donated £4 million to Reform.
Delo, who currently lives in Hong Kong, said he made the donation to Nigel Farage’s party before the government placed a £100,000 cap on donations to political parties by Brits living abroad last month.
Writing in the Telegraph, he has said he is moving back to the UK so he can donate millions more to Reform and “build a war chest” for the party without being subject to the cap on expat donations.
Alongside another billionaire Reform donor Christopher Harborne, Delo also made his fortune from cryptocurrency.
Farage has advocated for deregulating cryptocurrency to make the UK a global leader in cryptocurrency.
Last May, he announced at a Bitcoin conference in Las Vegas that Reform would become the first political party to accept donations in cryptocurrency.
Delo, co-founder of trillion-dollar cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, was convicted in the US in 2022. He pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to implement adequate anti-money-laundering controls at the firm.
In his Telegraph article, he wrote: “I helped build one of the world’s first major crypto trading platforms, fell foul of US regulators, accepted a plea bargain and a civil fine for a regulatory failing that isn’t even a crime in the UK, but then ended up being pardoned by Donald Trump, the US president, anyway.”
Last month, a Guardian investigation found that Delo had given support to Restore Britain founder Rupert Lowe, allowing him to use the Sanctuary, his base in Westminster Abbey.
Delo has also connected with more mainstream figures including the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, and the former cabinet minister Michael Gove.
Image credit: Anne Schwarz – Creative Commons
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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