Shortly before Christmas 2022, Chakrit Sakunkrit, owner of the Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary on the Thai island of Koh Samui, invited 200 guests to celebrate his 60th birthday. Among the attendees was Nigel Farage, who had been politically dormant since Brexit. However, Farage was hinting at a more ambitious project: to become prime minister.
Sakunkrit, known for his talks on micronutrients and Tibetan bells, speaks perfect English. In fact, he is English, born Christopher Charles Sherriff Harborne in Mosborough, near Sheffield, on 18 December 1962. He adopted the Thai name Chakrit upon naturalising there in 2011.
Over the past seven years, Harborne has given more than £22m to Farage's political party, Reform UK (formerly the Brexit Party). This accounts for two-thirds of all funding received by the party, making it uniquely dependent on a single benefactor. August's £9m donation was the largest single amount ever given by a living donor, followed by another £3m in November.
Harborne's wealth is largely derived from cryptocurrency, particularly Tether, the company that issues the most widely traded stablecoin. He was an early buyer of digital tokens and owns a stake in Tether, which has been described as the most profitable company per employee in history. Tether has issued $184bn in stablecoins, popular for moving money across borders and in regions with high inflation. However, billions have been used for illicit purposes by gangsters, scammers, and sanctions-busters.
Farage champions Tether, calling stablecoins the way money moves from conventional currencies to cryptocurrencies and back. He has urged London to embrace crypto and become a global trading centre. If Farage helps Tether become a $500bn company, it would make Harborne one of the richest people on the planet.
Harborne's background includes private school at Westminster, engineering at Cambridge, and senior positions at multinationals like PepsiCo. He moved to Thailand in 1996 and founded investment firm Sherriff Global in 2000. His first political donation was £10,000 to the Conservatives in 2001. He also founded AML Global, a jet fuel broker, and survived a plane crash in 2008.
Harborne's interest in crypto began in 2011 with bitcoin, and by 2014 he was a major trader in Ethereum. His early investment in Ethereum now accounts for a major portion of his net worth. Reform UK has become the first UK party to accept crypto donations and has proposed legislation to cut taxes on crypto profits.
Farage's enthusiasm for crypto predates his debanking by Coutts in 2022, according to former communications chief Gawain Towler. It dates back to early 2019, when Harborne arrived on the scene. Harborne's donations helped the Brexit Party win the 2019 European elections, sinking Theresa May's premiership.
Despite Tether's $10bn annual profits, it has never published full accounts or an audit of its reserves. The company has faced investigations for fraud and money laundering. Harborne's lawyers stress he is not an executive but holds a 12% stake in Tether.
Harborne's donations to the Conservatives also appear timed with political crises, such as the Partygate investigation and Liz Truss's budget meltdown. Some beneficiaries have adopted pro-crypto policies, though the party denies any quid pro quo.
Farage returned to frontline politics in 2024, winning a seat in Clacton. Harborne paid for his trips to the US for the Republican convention and Trump's inauguration. With Labour's ban on large donations from overseas donors, Harborne may need to return to the UK to continue funding Farage.
