Reporting on a new investigation by the Guardian, we look at the remarkable story of the man who has given over £22 million to Nigel Farage‘s political parties – an intensely private British-Thai crypto billionaire operating from a wellness retreat in Thailand who holds 12% of one of the world’s most profitable companies and has appeared in the Panama Papers.
The Guardian published a major profile this week examining Christopher Harborne – the single largest donor in the history of British politics – as Reform UK’s stunning local election results on May 1 put Farage’s party on course for a potential general election government. The investigation raises serious questions about who is funding Britain’s most powerful insurgent political movement, and what they stand to gain.
Who is Christopher Harborne?
Christopher Charles Sherriff Harborne was born in December 1962. He was educated at Westminster School and at Downing College, Cambridge, where he received degrees in engineering and management. He also holds an MBA from INSEAD, the prestigious European business school.
Harborne is in his early 60s, born in Britain but for more than two decades has lived and worked in Thailand, where he has joint nationality and goes by the Thai name Chakrit Sakunkrit. He rarely speaks publicly and describes himself as “an intensely private person.” Despite this, his financial influence on British politics is both enormous and direct.
He began his career as a management consultant at McKinsey before building a business empire in Asia spanning private aviation, defence technology and, most lucratively, cryptocurrency.
The cryptocurrency fortune
It is the volatile world of cryptocurrency that has generated the bulk of his fortune. Harborne was an early investor in both Bitcoin and Ethereum. His most lucrative stake is in Tether, a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. Harborne owns approximately 12% of Tether, a company that reported profits of $13 billion last year alone.
To put that in context: Tether’s profits rival those of Goldman Sachs. His stake came through DigFinex, the parent company of both Tether and the Bitfinex crypto exchange, which Harborne acquired around 2016 using his Thai identity, Chakrit Sakunkrit.
Harborne has reportedly lived and worked in Thailand for more than 20 years. He was also named director of Bangkok-based investment firm Seamico Securities under his Thai identity.
Tether’s operations have attracted scrutiny. The UK’s National Crime Agency has reported its use in money-laundering schemes linked to Russian efforts in Ukraine, though Tether states it “unequivocally condemns the illegal use of stablecoins.”
In 2023, the Wall Street Journal published an article examining companies connected to Tether that made allegations about Harborne’s aviation fuel company AML Global. Harborne and AML Global won a defamation case against the Wall Street Journal for what was described as “false accusations of fraud, money laundering and financing terrorism.”
The Panama Papers and the dual identity
According to The Times, Harborne’s name “features in the Panama Papers as an intermediary of companies linked to offshore accounts”. The Panama Papers, the 2016 leak of 11.5 million documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, revealed the offshore financial activities of thousands of wealthy individuals worldwide.
The Papers showed Harborne played intermediary roles for five companies under his British name. No criminal wrongdoing was alleged or established as a result.
The dual identity – British Christopher Harborne and Thai Chakrit Sakunkrit – has been a source of persistent questions about the transparency of his business dealings. Harborne holds some assets in his English name, and others in that of his Thai alter ego.
The political donations – a history
Harborne’s political giving has escalated dramatically over time. Before switching to the Brexit Party, Harborne had donated smaller sums averaging £15,000 per year since 2001, totalling about £270,000, to the Conservative Party. He also donated £1 million to the Office of Boris Johnson Ltd, one of the biggest donations ever made to an individual British politician.
Then came the big money. Harborne donated more than £6 million to the Brexit Party in 2019, making him the largest donor that year. The timing was significant: that was the year Farage made the strategic decision to stand Brexit Party candidates down in Conservative-held seats, a move many political analysts believe contributed decisively to Boris Johnson’s 80-seat majority.
Harborne donated £9 million to Reform UK in 2025, and a further £3 million in March 2026, making him the largest single donor to a UK political party in a financial year in UK history. His total donations to Reform UK and the Brexit Party have now exceeded £22 million since 2019.
Christopher Harborne’s donation towers over all others, propelling Reform UK to a staggering £10.5 million in total receipts in one quarter, far outstripping the Conservatives’ £7 million and Labour’s £2.6 million.
The defence connection
Beyond cryptocurrency, Harborne has significant interests in the British defence sector. The government awarded QinetiQ, a company in which Harborne was the largest single shareholder, an £80 million Ministry of Defence contract in January 2023. He also acted as an advisor to Boris Johnson on his trip to Kyiv in September 2023 to meet Volodymyr Zelensky.
Reform UK is now the largest party by seat count outside of Labour and the Conservatives. If it were to enter government, it would be in a position to make decisions affecting defence procurement – an area where its biggest donor has direct financial interests.
What does he want?
When asked about Harborne’s motivations, Farage has insisted the donor wants “absolutely nothing in return at all” for his multi-million pound support.
One senior Reform member describes him as “a merchant adventurer with a great belief in this country.” Another associate says the “slightly geeky” Cambridge engineering graduate sees political problems more as “a mathematical equation that is producing the wrong answer.”
This alignment is clear. Farage has publicly championed cryptocurrency, telling LBC he was arguing against curbs on crypto and highlighting Tether’s growing valuation. With Donald Trump – who has family ties to crypto profits – in the White House, and Harborne’s wealth fuelling Reform’s campaign, the intersection of digital currency and political influence has never been more pronounced in British politics.
Farage himself has £215,000 personally invested in Stack BTC, a Bitcoin treasury company. He has proposed cutting capital gains tax on cryptocurrency from 24% to 10% and having the Bank of England hold Bitcoin as a reserve asset. The policies that would most benefit Harborne’s core investment are precisely the ones Farage is advocating.
The Electoral Commission question
The government has introduced a £100,000 annual cap on donations from overseas residents to British political parties – a measure aimed directly at curtailing Harborne’s ability to continue funding Reform at the same scale. He gave £3 million in March 2026, before the cap fully took effect.
The Guardian’s investigation also noted, as previously reported by Byline Times, that Reform UK has not shared its cryptocurrency wallet addresses with the Electoral Commission, meaning the watchdog cannot independently verify where crypto donations are coming from. A Commission spokesperson confirmed Reform had not shared the wallet details. The government subsequently announced a moratorium on cryptocurrency donations to political parties.
The broader picture
Christopher Harborne is not the only Reform donor whose background raises questions. Ben Delo, the co-founder of BitMEX who pleaded guilty to violating US banking law in 2022 and was fined $10 million, has donated £4 million to the party and moved back to the UK specifically to donate more. He was pardoned by Donald Trump in 2025.
Together, Harborne and Delo account for the vast majority of the money that has made Reform the best-funded party in British politics outside of Labour.
The Guardian’s full investigation into Christopher Harborne can be read here.
