Why crypto-billionaires love Reform
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Why did two crypto billionaires donate £72 million to Reform UK?
This is the Guardian.
Today. Why are the super rich giving away millions to reform?
On Friday. Bendello Forty two year old businessman and convicted criminal. Donated thirty six million pounds to reform. That works out to a million pounds for every month between now and the latest possible date until the next general election. It brings the total Dello has donated to the party, this year alone, to forty-four million pounds. Not to be outdone. Less than twenty four hours later, Christopher Harborn. Remember him, the sixty three year old billionaire based in Thailand? Pitched in with another thirty six million pound donation.
I mean this is essentially unprecedented in British political history as far as I know. So even though they've had big donations in the past, that's seventy two million pounds over a weekend. This is potentially a game changing amount. It's it's more in total than the big four or five parties spent altogether in the twenty twenty four general uh election. So this is huge amounts of money.
Both donors are Oxbridge educated businessmen who made their money in cryptocurrency and have largely been living abroad. Both say they're doing it to level the playing field in UK politics.
These two splendid gentlemen who are just trying to help save Britain and fix Britain and make us more prosperous again through Reform UK, they're not making any demands. And there's no ask and there'll be nothing given in return. So we're the honourable ones here.
So what could that money buy? And what will reform do with it? From The Guardian, I'm Noshi Nikbal. Today in focus, could the super rich sway a general election?
Peter Walker, you're a senior political correspondent at The Guardian. Now, today focused listeners will be familiar by now with Christopher Harborn's name. He is the billionaire primarily based in Thailand, made a lot of money in crypto, and gave an undeclared five million pounds to Farage back in twenty twenty four. He generated no end of trouble for Farage and the party, since the Guardian revealed the existence of that gift earlier this year. He's now donated an additional thirty six million pounds to the party over the weekend. He justified his position in the Sunday Telegraph. What did he have to say?
He essentially had to say that he thinks that the UK needs significant change, including to generate growth.
What do the donors say they hope to achieve for Reform UK?
And he thinks that Reform UK are the only, well certainly the best, but probably the only way to do that. And he said he wanted to donate such a significant sum, 'cause it would actually make a difference to them that um he likened Reform UK to a kind of start up and making the point that the big parties have their established funding streams. reform don't. He he also said, as only someone extremely rich can say, that he's basically got enough money And he wants to improve the lot of not only Reform UK, but humanity as a whole, um, as he uh as he wrote. Um but he also says he wants reform to be ready for government, because there is a concern even amongst some of reform's backers that they're not completely ready to essentially go from
a start up with a handful of MPs to running the entire country. So he thinks that this money would help with that.
So Harborne matched a thirty six million pound donation which had been made twenty four hours earlier from Ben Dello. Peter, who is he and what did he have to say about it?
Bendello is um another crypto billionaire. He was Hong Kong based for quite some time. He's now, we're told, back in the UK.
I've always been a a problem solver, and if someone tells me No, you can't do that or it's impossible. I see that as a red rag to a bull, as a a challenge to try and solve it and I may have been expelled from a few schools as a result. Uh in this case it was how do you hedge cryptocurrency risk? How do you offer it?
kind of biographical detail that's worth pointing out was that he was convicted in the US over banking secrecy laws and got a thirty month probationary sentence, which he largely served, but then President Trump pardoned uh him.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why did two crypto billionaires donate £72 million to Reform UK?
0:00–2:55
2
What do the donors say they hope to achieve for Reform UK?
2:55–5:41
3
How might the £72 million change Reform UK’s election strategy?
5:41–8:59
4
What legal and residency rules affect overseas political donations?
8:59–11:42
5
How could the new elections bill limit future foreign funding?
11:42–14:59
6
What impact could the money have on voter perception of Nigel Farage?
14:59–17:22
7
How are other parties planning to respond to Reform’s cash boost?
17:22–19:46
8
What are the long‑term implications for UK politics if crypto money fuels a party?
19:46–22:14
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