Thread by @docrussjackson

#THREAD

Rumour has it, the character leading Nigel Farage away is George Cottrell, an interesting chap, who may give some insight into Farage's 'anti-elite' Reform UK team.

(Btw, I don't agree with chucking drinks over anyone).

So who is George Cottrell?

The former head of fundraising for UKIP, Cottrell was born to an aristocratic family.

His dad, a businessman & landowner from Gloucestershire, attended Gordonstoun School with Prince Andrew.

Remember: Reform UK self-identity as an 'anti-elite' party.

Cottrell's mum, The Honourable Fiona Watson, daughter of Rupert Watson, 3rd Baron Manton, is a former gf of King Charles!

I accept no-one chooses their parents, but opportunities for the privately educated like Cottrell, Tice, Farage & Habib are greater than for ordinary folk.

Cottrell's maternal uncle, Alexander Fermor-Hesketh, 3rd Baron Hesketh, was the Govt Chief Whip in the House of Lords & served as Treasurer of the Conservative Party, later defecting to the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in 2011.

It's a family affair!

bbc.co.uk/news/business-…

Cottrell was raised and educated on the private island of Mustique before attending independent boarding school Malvern College (current fees around £15,000/term), from which he was expelled for illegal gambling.

SPOILER ALERT:

telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-m…

Cottrell was listed as a director in a number of businesses from a young age, both in the UK and overseas.

Starting in 2013, Cottrell assumed a number of roles at banks, including Credit Suisse, JP Morgan, and Banca Privada d'Andorra (BPA).

Following #GE2015, Cottrell was appointed deputy treasurer of UKIP. While head of fundraising for UKIP, Cottrell became the chief of staff to then UKIP leader, Farage.

When Farage resigned as leader of UKIP, Cottrell continued to run his private office.

thedailybeast.com/meet-posh-geor…

On 22 July 2016, while attending the Republican National Convention with Farage, Cottrell was arrested by IRS Criminal Investigation special agents at Chicago O'Hare International. 😬

independent.co.uk/news/nigel-far…

Cottrell was federally indicted on 21 counts for conspiracy to commit money laundering, wire fraud, blackmail, & extortion.

Denied bail by a judge who branded him a "serious flight risk," he was detained in custody in Chicago.

eu.azcentral.com/story/news/loc…

Cottrell's indictment states how in 2014, he met with undercover federal agents in Las Vegas, where he conspired to launder millions of dollars worth of drug money using offshore bank accounts.

Reform UK also self-identifies as a 'law & order' Party.

However, following a plea agreement in December 2016, prosecutors agreed to dismiss 20 counts in return for a guilty plea to a single count of wire fraud in which Cottrell admitted to explaining various ways criminal proceeds could be laundered.

LAW & ORDER!

In March 2017, Cottrell was sentenced and released by Judge Diane Humetewa, having served eight months in prison. theguardian.com/politics/2017/…

Two weeks ago, rumour had it that the aristocratic banker - an ex-boyfriend of I'm A Celebrity winner Georgia Toffolo - was believed to have lost a staggering £16 MILLION in a private high-stakes poker game in Montenegro. 🤑

Reform UK: the billionaire-funded anti-elite party!

Nigel Farage's 'anti-elite' anti-Net Zero Reform UK Party has been bankrolled by fossil fuel oil & gas investors, aviation entrepreneurs, polluters & those who reject climate science to the tune of £2.3 MILLION since #GE2019.

desmog.com/2024/06/04/nig…

And as revealed by @DeSmog in October 2023, the hedge-fund of "anti-elite" Farage's boss - co-owner of GB "News" Paul Marshall - holds $2.2 BILLION worth of shares in fossil fuel companies. 'Anti-elite' man of the people my arse.

ALWAYS FOLLOW THE MONEY!

In 2006, Montenegro declared independence following a narrowly won referendum.

Vijesta reported in 2023 that Cottrell was accused of illegally financing the Europe Now Movement, as well as involvement with a machine for buying & selling cryptocurrencies.

en.vijesti.me/news/black-chr…

The Balkan state of Montenegro is a low-tax, low-cost euro haven that borders Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo & Serbia. It’s also an EU candidate country that offers investment returns without the regulatory restrictions of membership.

Reminder:

The risks of unregulated crypto are apparent in Montenegro.

In June 2023, an illegal cryptomat was discovered - the cryptocurrency ATM enabled users to convert digital currencies into cash or other cryptocurrencies.

The machine was linked to Cottrell.

riskbulletins.globalinitiative.net/see-obs-017/03…

In 2023 Vijesti reported that in January 2020 Cottrell founded the company "Private family office", & that he had crossed the Montenegro state border about fifteen times over the last few years using a passport in the name of George Co.

en.vijesti.me/news/black-chr…

A 2023 NYT article alleged Cottrell left Montenegro for London shortly after the police raided a bar that law enforcement officials believe is connected to him. It features gambling machines & a “cryptomat,” used for buying & trading digital currencies.
archive.ph/06jB9

The current Montengro PM is Milojko Spajić, who has worked as a credit analyst for Goldman Sachs, & has also been a partner of a venture capital fund in Singapore.

Spajić, a former currency trader, is accused of associating with Do Kwon.

Who is Do Kwon?

protos.com/montenegro-pm-…

Do Kwon is co-founder & CEO of Terraform Labs, the parent company of crashed stablecoin TerraUSD & cryptocurrency Luna, which collapsed in May 2022, wiping out almost $45 billion market capitalization in a week & causing hundreds of billions in losses in the crypto market.

In March 2023, Kwon was arrested in Montenegro, while attempting to travel to Dubai using falsified documents. Kwon has now been charged by a US federal grand jury of eight counts, including securities fraud, commodities & wire fraud, & conspiracy. thebattleground.eu/2023/06/30/now…

After his arrest, Do Kwon claimed he had enjoyed a “very successful investment relationship” with current PM Milojko Spajic, the leader of the Europe Now Movement (ENM), a major crypto sector supporter. Nebojša Medojević claimed Cottrell was one of the financiers of the ENM.

In another crypto development, Christopher Harborne — who goes by the name Chakrit Sakunkrit in Thailand — a Bitfinex shareholder, & arguably the number one supporter of #Brexit, is suing the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) for defamation.

protos.com/christopher-ha…

Multimillionaire Harborne, who made his money from aviation fuel & a number of almost-too-brilliant crypto investments, is taking on the News Corp-owned WSJ over an article entitled ‘Crypto Companies Behind Tether Used Falsified Documents & Shell Companies to Get Bank Accounts.’

The WSJ article, only recently corrected, is nearly a year old, & the lawsuit appears to be coming out of left field.

The original claims of the article seem to have largely revolved around Harborne, & Stephen Moore, who had reservations about Bitfinex’s banking arrangements.

Stephen Moore co-founded and served as president of the 'Club for Growth' from 1999 to 2004, is a former member of the WSJ editorial board. He worked at The Heritage Foundation from 1983 to 1987 & again since 2014. Moore advised on Trump's 2016 campaign.

The Club For Growth is a very well-funded, extremely influential, deeply concerning & frankly sinister hard-right libertarian organisation, which raised $62M in the 2020 election cycle. Its largest funders are the billionaires Jeff Yass & Richard Uihlein.

What's any of this got to do with Cottrell, Farage & Reform UK? By far the biggest single Reform donor is Harborne, who made many appearances in the #PanamaPapers. According to Electoral Commission records he's given around £10M to Brexit/Reform UK party.

In January 2023, it was revealed that Boris Johnson had reportedly received a record-breaking £1 million donation from Harborne, who made the record gift to Boris Johnson LTD, the former PM’s political office that funds his activities.

FOLLOW THE MONEY.

protos.com/boris-johnson-…

A 2019 thread by @carolecadwalla, featuring George Cottrell, includes the fact that British-Belizean political activist Andy Wigmore sent Cottrell's legal documents to the Russian embassy marked ‘For your eyes only’ with the message: ‘Have fun with this’.

Wigmore, of the campaign, is an associate of Arron Banks & Nigel Farage.

In June 2018, Banks used his appearance before the Commons media select committee to say there was "not one shred of evidence" he was involved in a conspiracy with Russian officials. Leave.EU

In the evidence session the Chair asked: “Did you discuss George Cottrell’s arrest with the Russian Embassy?”

Andy Wigmore replied: “It never came up. While at the time it probably seemed a big thing, there was so much else going on at the time it just was not an issue.”

Chair: “You did not share any information with them about it?”

Andy Wigmore: “We didn’t know anything, was the other thing. All we had seen was exactly what was in the press about George Cottrell. That was it.”

In February 2023, Arron Banks lost two of three challenges to his failed libel action against Carole Cadwalladr, with the judge ruling that "Cadwalladr had reasonable grounds for believing that... (Aaron) Banks shared information with Russian officials":

As reported by The Daily Beast in February 2020, Banks’ social-media account was compromised in November 2019, and a link to download the hacked messages was posted on his Twitter account.

archive.ph/XGTNF/again#se…

The contents were not reported in the UK media after a series of threatening messages from Banks’ lawyers & his spokesman Andy Wigmore, who said he would “come after” anyone who downloaded the data. Wigmore also accused Twitter of breaching European Union data-protection rules.

The leaks suggested Banks had boasted about a backchannel to WikiLeaks after Farage’s secret meeting with Julian Assange at the Ecuadorean embassy in London.

In 2018 it was reported that Nigel Farage had 'slipped Julian Assange a data stick in secret'. news.sky.com/story/nigel-fa…

In Banks's Twitter direct messages, Banks also claimed he used close ties to Team Trump to lobby on behalf of the Belizean banking sector.

Banks discussed a plan to work with then-Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant to restore support for transactions in US dollars to Belize Bank.

The institution lost its partnerships with Bank of The America and Commerzbank after an Obama-era American crackdown on offshore tax evasion raised the costs of offering correspondent banking facilities to Belize’s biggest bank. reuters.com/investigates/s…

The Belize Bank - which is said to be owned by British-Belizean businessman, pollster, politician & Conservative Party donor Lord Ashcroft - reportedly saw the value of its deposits fall 75% in the six months after.

In 2008, The Economist ran an article on the web of loans and court cases surrounding Belize Bank (owned by Ashcroft), a private hospital company called Universal Health Services and the government of Belize. economist.com/britain/2008/0…

The Twitter leaks suggest Ashcroft had messaged Banks in November 2016 to say: “The correspondent bank for US dollars?”, with banks replying: “We have asked about corresponding banking for Belize (and it's been taken up) call Andy for an update !”

As well as being a spokesman for Banks and , Andy Wigmore was also a trade and investment envoy to Britain for Belize.

Banks, who was an honorary consul to Wales for Belize, allegedly sketched out more of the plan to Ashcroft: Leave.EU

Gerry Gunster is President of a US lobbying & referendum specialist firm.

In May 2016, he & Aaron Banks arranged for Isabel Oakeshott to attend the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, the one where President Obama roasted Trump.

Oakshott's other half is Richard Tice.

Oakshott kept a diary of the trip for ConHome.

It was later revealed that Banks, through Southern Rock, had paid Gerry Gunster, through his lobbying firm Goddard Gunster, for a “Nigel Farage Brexit Policy Luncheon”, held in May 2019

This included paying Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson £11,305 to interview Farage at the event. Later, Farage met Republican Senator Bob Corker & John Bolton, who served as Trump’s National Security Advisor.

The meetings were coordinated by Gunster.
channel4.com/news/nigel-far…

It was recently the anniversary of the Maiden speech of Joe Cox, who was murdered by a far-right terrorist.

Farage often uses dangerous far-right extremist rhetoric, & Reform UK's sloganeering is indistinguishable from that of the 1970s National Front.

Good article on George Cottrell in @BylineTimes:
bylinetimes.com/2024/06/06/who…