Revealed: Farage’s £5m gift reported to UK crime agency over money laundering concerns

The Guardian first revealed in April that Farage had been given £5m by the Reform donor Christopher Harborne. Illustration: Guardian Design/Getty View image in fullscreen The Guardian first revealed in April that Farage had been given £5m by the Reform donor Christopher Harborne. Illustration: Guardian Design/Getty Revealed: Farage’s £5m gift reported to UK crime agency over money laundering concerns Exclusive: Latest Guardian revelation about gift from cryptocurrency tycoon comes as Reform UK leader forces byelection The £5m gift to Nigel Farage by a cryptocurrency billionaire was reported to the National Crime Agency by bankers who were concerned it may have been laundered money, the Guardian can reveal. The disclosure will put further pressure on the Reform UK leader, who is awaiting a decision by the standards commissioner over whether his failure to declare the money breached parliamentary rules. Farage was given a deadline of 1pm on Tuesday to respond to the Guardian about this article. He gave a video address at 2pm announcing he would force a byelection in his seat of Clacton-on-Sea. That attempt to shake off the deepening scandal over his finances appeared to have backfired on Tuesday night as the Conservatives, Labour, Restore Britain and the Lib Dems all announced that they would not stand candidates in a contest described as a “media circus” and “vanity project”. If Farage is reelected, he is still likely to face the parliamentary investigation and any reprimand that might follow. The Guardian first revealed in April that Farage had been given £5m by the Reform donor Christopher Harborne. Since then Farage has given differing explanations over what the money was for, and insisted he had no obligation to disclose it because he was not a politician at the time, claiming it had no bearing on his decision to stand in the 2024 general election. However, the latest Guardian investigation will raise fresh questions over the gift. According to financial industry sources, Farage received at least some of the £5m after he had announced on 23 May 2024 that he was not going to stand for parliament , saying it was “not the right time for me”. The balance of the £5m was received after he had ruled himself out, and shortly before he said he would run for the seat of Clacton in Essex . The disclosure of the £5m gift has led to the biggest crisis of Farage’s political career. In correspondence with the Guardian, Harborne’s lawyers have claimed Farage received the money on 5 April 2024. They did not provide a substantive response to detailed questions on the gift and a suspicious activity report (SAR) to the NCA. In one of the letters sent to the Guardian, Farage said he did not know about the SAR. He added: “I have no reason to doubt the ultimate source of the money.” He also repeated unsubstantiated accusations that the information had been “illegally obtained” by this newspaper. Farage has said he was not in politics at the time, and claimed that me