Things are looking worse and worse for Reform UK, with their notorious fraudster donor's dodgy crypto site Tether now shutting down

George Cottrell and Nigel Farage of Reform UK Tether

George Cottrell – a.k.a. ‘Posh George’ – is a convicted fraudster and close friend of Nigel Farage. Their closeness became a source of controversy recently because Cottrell made undeclared donations to Reform UK and provided Farage with undeclared benefits. It also emerged that Cottrell may have been more involved with Reform than previously believed, making the donations potentially even more scandalous. As with every other ongoing scandal, Farage no doubt hopes the controversy around Posh George will blow over. The problem for him is that things like this keep happening to things like his Tether gambling site:

Not. Going. Away. (Although Tether mysteriously has) https://t.co/4gtjKW0cPk

— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) August 12, 2026

It’s currently unclear why Tether.bet has ceased operating.

Tether untethered

Posh George was convicted of wire fraud in the US, and he did time in prison as a result. The Posh George controversies include the following:

Posh George is British, but he may not have been a permissible donor at the time of the above. Why wasn’t he a permissible donor? Because he lived in Montenegro for tax purposes. Why Montenegro? Because that’s where he was working on his crypto ventures.

Cottrell and others eyed up Montenegro because the government had pretty much non-existent crypto and gambling regulation. As the Times reported in July:

In Tivat, a tiny port city on the Adriatic coast, he married his two passions: crypto and gambling. He is understood to have become a key player in Tether.bet, an online bookmaker and casino that offered punters huge stakes on sports and politics.

The concept was that customers could place large sums of money — in some instances millions — in either cash or crypto. As its name suggested, this included Tether, a digital currency part owned by Harborne, the billionaire behind the £5 million gift. In fact, Tether.bet’s website was registered days after Farage, Cottrell and Harborne lunched together in Mayfair.

The ‘Harborne’ in question is Christopher Harborne; the crypto billionaire who infamously gave Farage his undeclared £5m ‘gift’ in 2024.

Crimes

As Gabriel Pogrund noted, Tether.bet was potentially linked to UK crimes. As the Times reported:

According to sources, the middlemen facilitated Tether.bet bets in which certain customers deposited tens of thousands of pounds cash via bank transfer into these entities, then had an equivalent sum converted into crypto and placed on their account with the platform. If they won, they could receive the cash as crypto or have it converted into cash and paid out via the same companies. Cottrell himself denies seeking clients for Tether.bet

It is an offence to advertise or provide unlawful gambling to customers in the UK, punishable with imprisonment or a fine. It is also a criminal offence to handle the proceeds of crime or launder money, which, in this instance, may have taken place every time the UK companies paid out winnings — as they were the proceeds of illicit gambling.

Crypto is now a very sensitive issue for Farage. Before he took the disputed donations from Cottrell and Harborne, he wasn’t a fan of the technology; now, he’s a big booster. Did the man have a change of heart, or did the undeclared cash buy his support? We don’t know, but his failure to declare the money looks worse and worse.

Questions

There are many mysteries right now; Tether.bet closing down is just the latest. Perhaps Farage will end up having good answers to the many questions we have, but if not, he’s going to be in a world of trouble. And as we reported yesterday, the £5m gift controversy could potentially soon be a police matter.

Featured image via Josiah Mortimer

By Willem Moore

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