A cryptocurrency backed by a major donor to Nigel Farage has been used to support Russia's war in Ukraine, according to British investigators. The National Crime Agency (NCA) has spent four years probing a multibillion-dollar scheme that converts cash from UK drug and gun sales into digital tokens designed to obscure user identities.
The NCA states the scheme has enabled 'sanctions evasions and the highest levels of organised crime, including providing money-laundering services to the Russian state'. Of the $24m (£18.3m) in crypto seized so far by the NCA and international partners, the 'vast majority' was issued by Tether, a private company headquartered in El Salvador.
Tether, which declared $13bn in profits for 2024, counts Christopher Harborne among its shareholders. Harborne, one of the UK's biggest political donors, gave £10m to Farage's Brexit party in 2019-20 and another £28,000 in January to attend Donald Trump's inauguration. The US had placed sanctions on Russian laundering networks the previous month, warning they were using Tether.
Reform UK, the first British party to accept crypto donations, did not comment. Harborne's lawyers argued that accusing an investor in Tether of complicity in crimes by users of its tokens would be 'akin to claiming the US Treasury is an accomplice in money laundering because it prints the US dollar'. There is no suggestion Harborne is personally implicated.
Tether's stablecoins, pegged to the dollar, are popular with illicit networks due to their stability. A Tether representative said the company 'unequivocally condemns the illegal use of stablecoins' and is committed to combating illicit activity, but noted that secondary market flows are not controlled by Tether. Crypto experts counter that all demand, including illicit, boosts Tether's cash reserves and profits.
Harborne, a former McKinsey consultant, also has interests in aviation fuel and military contractors. He has donated to the Conservatives and gave £1m to Boris Johnson in 2022, later accompanying him on a visit to Ukraine. The NCA's Operation Destabilise, launched in 2021, uncovered the Russian laundering scheme's shift to Tether before 2020. Deputy director Sal Melki said: 'A line can be drawn from this money-laundering scheme to support for companies involved in the Russian military-industrial base.'
