Polymarket Account in Farage Backer's Name Took $9M in Crypto From Unknown Sources: FT

A Polymarket account in the name of George Cottrell, the convicted fraudster who has bankrolled Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, took in $8.8 million in cryptocurrency from unidentified sources in 2024 and used it to bet on Donald Trump's election victory, the Financial Times reported.

The account, registered as "GCottrell93," was filled in late October 2024 from two crypto exchanges---$7 million from OKX, sent in five tranches, and $1.83 million routed through ChangeNOW, the FT said, citing public blockchain data. Each time money landed, it was immediately staked on a Trump win. After his victory, which the account turned into $4.46 million in profit, almost all the funds were moved back out to other wallets. Who provided the money, and who collected the winnings, is unclear.

The prediction market account has not been formally linked to Cottrell. Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has said he holds "high confidence" that it belongs to him, after flagging it earlier this year over a $550,000 loss on a bet about U.S. strikes on Iran. Cottrell's lawyers declined to comment on his finances or specific transactions, and said their silence did not mean he accepted the FT 's findings. Reform UK did not respond to the paper.

A Sunday Times investigation earlier this month found that Cottrell had bankrolled Farage's operation---staff, private security, transport, and accommodation---in the year before he won his parliamentary seat, benefits the Reform leader did not declare. Under the MPs' code of conduct, members must disclose gifts, benefits, and hospitality that "might reasonably be thought by others to influence [their] actions or words." Cottrell had covered Farage's security for months, the paper reported, and recruited and paid three staff to run his social media.

The investigation also tied Cottrell to a crypto-gambling platform it said was implicated in "potentially illegal" unlicensed betting in the UK. Since the election, the Sunday Times reported, he has let Farage use a five-storey house he rents near Buckingham Palace, minutes from Reform's headquarters; his lawyer said that "as a close friend," Cottrell "did, and does, allow Mr Farage to stay in" the property.

Both the Sunday Times and the FT have pressed whether money from unidentified sources helped fund benefits for Farage or Reform, a question Cottrell has declined to answer, including on who beneficially owns the Polymarket wallet.

Cottrell, 32, was born into an aristocratic family. In 2016, U.S. prosecutors charged him with 21 counts over an alleged "dark web" money laundering scheme; he pleaded guilty to a single count of wire fraud under a deal that dropped the rest, and served eight months in prison. He has since applied for a U.S. presidential pardon, the Sunday Times reported.

The report comes amid deepening scrutiny of Farage's crypto connections. Earlier this month, it was revealed that bankers had filed a suspicious activity report over a £5 million ($6.7 million) gift to him from billionaire Tether investor Christopher Harborne, and he was reported to the UK's standards watchdog over alleged crypto lobbying.
Farage resigned his Clacton seat on July 8 and forced a by-election he cast as a "people versus establishment" fight, denying wrongdoing after weeks of scrutiny over his finances. The main parties---Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, and the Greens---refused to stand, dismissing the contest as a stunt.

Among a record field of 34 contenders, Farage's most prominent challenger in the August 13 vote is satirical candidate Count Binface, who bills himself as an "intergalactic space warrior" from the planet Sigma IX and campaigns with a metal dustbin on his head.