Aristo-fraudster who raised millions for Farage sets up opaque new company

A secretive new company set up by an aristocratic convicted fraudster with close ties to Nigel Farage’s Reform party “raises real red flags”, a leading anti-corruption expert has warned.

George Cottrell has used his connections to the UK’s ultra-rich to raise millions for Farage’s political parties in official and unofficial roles before and after being convicted of wire fraud in the US in 2016.

These days, public documents suggest the 31-year-old resides in Montenegro, where he has been accused of laundering cryptocurrency to fund a political party – allegations his lawyers have strongly denied.

But he remains active in British politics. Cottrell is seemingly still an unpaid aide to the Reform leader, whose side he is regularly seen at during party events, including recent high-profile fundraisers at a London private members club.

And openDemocracy can reveal that Cottrell is set to launch a political strategy and polling firm, Geostrategy International Unlimited, at a time when Reform is in the midst of a major fundraising push. The party hopes to raise millions of pounds to fund its rapid expansion, partly by targeting overseas donors, as opinion polls increasingly suggest it poses the biggest threat to Labour at the next general election.

As an unlimited company, Geostrategy International will never have to file financial accounts, but can still make political donations; alarming transparency campaigners concerned by Cottrell's previous conviction and his proximity to politics.

Campaign group Spotlight on Corruption has warned that unlimited companies such as Geostrategy International can “easily be abused”, urging the Electoral Commission to “ensure they do not provide a backdoor for illegal donations”.

‘Backdoor for illegal donations’

Cottrell was sentenced to eight months in prison in the US in March 2017 after being found guilty of one count of wire fraud for offering money laundering services on the dark web. He was released after sentencing, having already served his jail time in the run-up to the court case.

Cottrell had struck a plea deal with prosecutors after being caught in an FBI sting operation in 2014, in which he travelled to Vegas to meet undercover agents whom he believed to be drug traffickers wanting to launder money. The crime was committed before Cottrell worked for Farage or any of his political parties.

During the trial, US authorities said federal agents were “impressed with his knowledge of finance, US government procedures, and anti-money laundering laws”.

At the time of his arrest in August 2016, Cottrell had already been working for UKIP, though Farage told the BBC that this was in an unpaid volunteer position. Cottrell’s LinkedIn says he “served as a treasurer and head of fundraising of the United Kingdom Independence Party during the EU Referendum Campaign in 2016”.

Cottrell returned to Farage’s side after serving his jail time, with The Times reporting in 2019 that he was working as an ‘unofficial’ fundraiser for the Brexit Party.

Today, he is still frequently pictured alongside Farage despite having no official role in Reform. His mother, Fiona Cottrell, an aristocrat who dated King Charles in the 1970s, donated £500,000 to the party in the run-up to last year’s election.

Cottrell has also made in-kind donations to the Reform leader worth around £25,000 over the past year. He spent over £9,000 on a trip by Farage and a Reform staff member to the National Conservatism Conference in Belgium last April and more than £15,000 on Farage’s flight to the US for Donald Trump’s inauguration in January of this year.

Although the Electoral Commission, the watchdog regulating the UK’s political financing, states that individuals must be “on a UK electoral register” to donate to parties or politicians, an exemption allows donations covering the “reasonable costs of a visit outside the UK”.

These rules may be why Cottrell, whose Company’s House filings say he lives in Montenegro, has not donated directly to Reform – and experts have suggested they may also explain his decision to set up a new business entity.

Cottrell incorporated Geostrategy International Unlimited in the UK and the US last month. The company has no website, no social media, or any other online footprint, though Cottrell’s lawyers told openDemocracy that “once it is launched, it will offer services as a full scope political strategy and polling company”.

As a private unlimited company, there is no limit on the liability of its directors – meaning that as the sole director, Cottrell could be held personally liable for any debts accrued that the company could not pay.

Most people seeking to establish a new business would view this as a significant downside, which may explain why, on average, unlimited companies have accounted for just 0.1% of firms started in the UK each year since 2014, according to Companies House data.

But what’s lost in liability is gained in secrecy; unlimited companies are generally not required to publish accounts and financial reports. They can, however, make political donations – meaning they can give any amount of money to a party without needing to say where it came from.

This is because British electoral law does not differentiate between limited and unlimited companies, stating only that a firm must be “a UK-registered company which is incorporated in the UK and carries on business in the UK” to make a political donation.

This leaves the system open to abuse – potentially allowing money to pour into political parties from overseas donors or otherwise illegitimate sources.

Pointing this out, Susan Hawley, the director of Spotlight on Corruption, has called on the Electoral Commission to make sure Geostrategy International is not used as a “backdoor for illegal donations”.

“With the complete financial secrecy that unlimited companies offer, they can easily be abused by those who want to shield their accounts from secrecy,” she told openDemocracy.

“The fact that Geostrategy has no other business footprint in the UK also raises real red flags about this arrangement.”

“We would urge the Electoral Commission to keep a close eye on these sorts of arrangements to ensure they do not provide a backdoor for illegal donations in the UK,” Hawley added.

Neither Cottrell nor Reform responded to openDemocracy’s questions over whether Geostrategy International has donated to or provided services for the party. Any donations made up to this point would likely be included in the next set of Electoral Commission data, which is due to be published in June.

Hawley urged the government to tighten up the political financing rules in the wake of openDemocracy’s findings.

She said: “These risks should also be a wake-up call to the government to urgently introduce a new Elections Bill that tightens up the gaping loopholes in our election finance laws, which allow suspect money to pour into political party coffers.”

openDemocracy understands that the Electoral Commission is aware of a potential loophole around unlimited companies, but does not have the necessary powers to tighten up the rules.

‘Fundraising drive’

Reform is currently on a major fundraising drive led by the party’s treasurer, billionaire property mogul and former Tory donor Nick Candy.

Candy recently told the New York Times he wants to raise more than £40m for the party and is particularly keen to source large donations from wealthy “expats” in low-tax jurisdictions.

“We are going to have fundraisers all over the world, in every part of the world where there are British nationals,” he said “We will have fundraisers in the US, in Monaco, and we will have huge fundraisers in the UAE where we have an expat community there who are unhappy with the amount of regulation and tax in the UK.”

Cottrell appears to live in Montenegro, a known hub for cryptocurrency and related technologies. In 2023, Montenegrin media reported that he was involved in a police inquiry into a crypto-laundering scheme run out of the basement of a private members’ club and casino.

He appears to have been caught up in the inquiry after he was identified as a fundraiser of the now governing party, Europe Now Movement (PES) by a leading Montenegrin politician, Nebojša Medojević.

In a letter to openDemocracy from Carter-Ruck, acting on Cottrell’s behalf, the law firm said Cottrell has “no involvement whatsoever in illegal crypto activities”.

They said the allegations in Montenegro amounted to “a politically motivated attempt to drag Mr Cottrell into an investigation”, which “failed”.

They wrote: “There never was any police investigation into Mr Cottrell’s conduct in Montenegro. The request made by the former Minister of Internal Affairs to issue an arrest and search warrant one year ago (sic) was politically motivated and was rejected by the presiding magistrate and publicly acknowledged by the prosecutors themselves to be part of a wider political attack. In other words, a politically motivated attempt to drag Mr Cottrell into an investigation failed.”

Labour MP Joe Powell, a co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Corruption and Fair Tax, said: “Current UK election law is riddled with loopholes, leaving our democracy vulnerable to dark money and foreign influence.

“That’s why I strongly welcome the government’s commitment to introducing an Elections Bill in the next session – an important step toward strengthening our democracy and upholding the integrity of UK elections so that every citizen has an equal voice in decisions that affect them.

“This legislation must include a robust crackdown on foreign money in politics to prevent hostile actors from exploiting our electoral system. Transparency and accountability are essential to restoring public trust in our democracy.”