Reform donor lost thousands betting on Iran and Starmer

The convicted fraudster embroiled in a police investigation into donations given to Reform UK has lost more than $1m in the past year gambling on a cryptocurrency-based prediction market.

George Cottrell, the British aristocratic banker who lives in Montenegro and has previously been convicted of wire fraud in the US, made his biggest loss – more than $550,000 – on a single Polymarket bet on the timing of the US’s military strike on Iran. He lost a further $125,000 incorrectly predicting Keir Starmer would be out of office by the end of February.

Polymarket allows users to wager predictions on anything from politics and the economy to the World Cup. UK-based users can view odds but are not permitted to open an account or place trades.

Cottrell has been in the spotlight following a flurry of stories in recent days about his relationship with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, and questions about his financial support for the man he reportedly calls “Daddy”.

Last weekend the Sunday Times revealed that 32-year-old Cottrell had provided Farage with support including for social media campaigns and security. The Guardian subsequently revealed that two loans from Cottrell to deputy Reform leader Richard Tice, and a £1m donation from his mother Fiona Cottrell to Reform fundraising vehicle Britain Means Business, which is owned by Tice, had been referred to the National Crime Agency through suspicious activity reports (SARs). These are a formal mechanism by which banks, solicitors and other regulated parties can send the NCA details about “knowledge or suspicion of money laundering”. They are not evidence of criminal activity.

The crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne’s undeclared £5m gift to Farage – which was the subject of an investigation by parliament’s standards commissioner until the Reform leader quit last Tuesday – was also referred to the NCA, according to the Guardian. On Friday it reported that mother and son had been interviewed under police caution by detectives from the Metropolitan police’s special inquiry team.

Lawyers acting for George Cottrell told the Guardian he had no comment to make and that suggestions he “has donated impermissibly to Reform UK are unfounded”.

Cottrell, who recently co-wrote a book called How to Launder Money, was sentenced to eight months in a US jail in 2017, after pleading guilty to a single count of wire fraud.

Reform UK did not respond to requests for comment. When asked about the £1m by Times Radio on Friday, Tice said he was “not aware” of any investigation, and that the source of the money was Fiona Cottrell. “She’s a permissible donor, she donated to the party, and that’s the end of it.”

He said he had known the Cottrell family for 50 years, and that he understood George Cottrell was also a permissible donor. He added that articles about the funding were “a politically motivated smear campaign”.

The NCA said it does not “confirm or deny the receipt of suspicious activity reports”, adding: “SARs are confidential and breaching that confidentiality risks committing a tipping-off offence under the Proceeds of Crime Act.”

Photograph by Steve Finn/WENN/Alamy