A British billionaire convicted in the US for failing to implement adequate money-laundering controls on his cryptocurrency business is funding a political base in Westminster used by anti-woke and rightwing activists. Ben Delo, 42, who was pardoned by Donald Trump last year, provides support in kind to Rupert Lowe, the anti-migration MP challenging Nigel Farage from the right, while also connecting with mainstream figures including Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and former cabinet minister Michael Gove.
Delo, an Oxford graduate who moved to Hong Kong in 2012, says he is a champion of free speech and has vowed to tackle the nuisance of political correctness. He supports more than 50 organisations across the political spectrum. A joint investigation by the Guardian and Hope Not Hate reveals some of the people and projects that have benefited from his largesse, including those with hardline positions on immigration, nationalism and abortion.
Delo, who says he has poured more than £100m into philanthropy, provides funding, networking opportunities and help in kind via a suite of rooms in a building overlooking Westminster Abbey, known as the Sanctuary. Those given access can use the facility free of charge for events, office space and podcasting. Restore Britain, the party founded by Lowe, launched its campaign for the mass deportation of millions of migrants from a room at the Sanctuary last year.
The Triggernometry podcast, which describes itself as a free speech platform, has used the facilities to broadcast to its 1.7 million subscribers. Its co-host Konstantin Kisin has questioned whether former prime minister Rishi Sunak could be considered English because of his ethnicity. A spokesperson for Triggernometry said Kisin had repeatedly explained that he is not rightwing and never said Sunak was not English, but rather that he was British and not ethnically English.
Delo says he does not necessarily endorse the views of those he supports. Guests at his summer party last year included Michael Gove, Reform UK's head of policy James Orr, and Ben Habib, founder of Advance UK, the party supported by Tommy Robinson. Delo has also connected with Badenoch, who sent him a handwritten note after sitting with him at the Spectator magazine awards dinner in 2023. One of Delo's associates, Jeremy Hildreth, donated £26,755 in legal costs to Badenoch in 2021.
Delo was convicted in the US in 2022 after pleading guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act by wilfully failing to implement money-laundering controls at BitMEX, the trillion-dollar cryptocurrency exchange he co-founded. Federal prosecutors alleged the company was in effect a money-laundering platform. Delo's lawyers said there had been no evidence or findings of the company being used for money laundering.
