Reform UK's chronicles

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Carth

By the time that happens, the £72 million could be worth as much as . . . £827.84 in real money

In which case, I'm sure they'll find another altruistic bitcoin billionaire who won't want anything in return.

[Carth]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

In which case, I'm sure they'll find another altruistic bitcoin billionaire who won't want anything in return.

I'm sure they will, and Labour will always have the financial backing of the trade unions (although they NEVER get anything in return)

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Carth

I'm sure they will, and Labour will always have the financial backing of the trade unions (although they NEVER get anything in return)

They've been honest on that score and acknowledged their members do.

However, the bitcoin billionaires know that if Nige tells his faithful flock that the £72m is unconditional, they will believe him.

[Carth]

What do you think he's going to do with it?

Apart from quite possibly a villa in Spain, a yacht, a Scottish castle (complete with moat and maybe one of those motor homes that are in vogue up there)

He could possibly use it to try *buying* votes, but that's not going to work, neither is building a platform advocating for bitcoin to be recognised UK currency.

Thoughts?

Originally Posted by Carth

I'm sure they will, and Labour will always have the financial backing of the trade unions (although they NEVER get anything in return)

Yes, you’re right - getting money from Unions who gather it from millions of individual workers who all reside and pay tax in this country and who have opted-in to make a contribution to a Political Fund is almost exactly the same as receiving tens of millions of funding from money-laundering billionaires who decided to live overseas to avoid paying tax…

[Carth]

I'd be careful with the 'money laundering' statement Hugh, unless you know something that should also be reported to the authorities and investigators

[Itshim]

Have problems in Wales .leader resigning, reported to police and released with out charge. MS thought to going to plaid.

[Dingbat]

Originally Posted by Itshim

Have problems in Wales .leader resigning, reported to police and released with out charge. MS thought to going to plaid.

That’s the second leader Reform have lost in the Senedd, after their Russian asset Nathan Gill was jailed.

Originally Posted by Carth

I'd be careful with the 'money laundering' statement Hugh, unless you know something that should also be reported to the authorities and investigators

Why - Delo pled guilty to the offence, and then he was pardoned, not exonerated…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly79gpp22do

In 2022, Delo was convicted in the US for failing to implement adequate anti-money laundering controls at BitMex. He was sentenced to 30 months of probation and given a $10m (£7.3m) fine for violating the US Bank Secrecy Act, but was subsequently pardoned by President Donald Trump.

https://www.justice.gov/pardon/frequ...sked-questions

A pardon is an expression of the President’s forgiveness and can be granted in recognition of the applicant’s acceptance of responsibility for the crime and established good conduct for a significant period of time after conviction or completion of sentence

Please also be aware that if you were to be granted a presidential pardon, the pardoned offense would not be removed from your criminal record. Instead, both the federal conviction as well as the pardon would both appear on your record.

His company was fined another $100 million for money-laundering in January 2025…

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr...nk-secrecy-act

Company Willfully Flouted U.S. Anti-Money Laundering Laws to Boost Revenue

Matthew Podolsky, Attorney for the United States, Acting under Authority Conferred by 28 U.S.C. § 515, announced that HDR GLOBAL TRADING LTD., a/k/a “BITMEX”, was sentenced today to a fine of $100 million for violating the Bank Secrecy Act by willfully failing to establish, implement, and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering (“AML”) and know-your-customer (“KYC”) program.

Attorney for the United States Matthew Podolsky said: “Anti-money laundering and know-your-customer rules protect Americans from fraud, combat money laundering, and prevent the financing of terrorist activity. It is critical that all financial institutions, including cryptocurrency exchanges, comply with these rules to protect our country’s economy and national security. Today’s sentence sends a clear message that companies that willfully violate these rules and refuse to implement AML/KYC programs will face consequences.”

According to the allegations in the Information and other filings and statements made in court:

Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed founded BITMEX in or about 2014, and Gregory Dwyer became BITMEX’s first employee in 2015 and later its Head of Business Development. BITMEX, which has long serviced and solicited business from U.S. traders and operated through U.S. offices, was required to register with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) and to establish and maintain an adequate AML program. AML programs ensure that financial institutions, such as BITMEX, are not exploited for illicit purposes and serve to protect the integrity of the U.S. financial system and national security more broadly.

BITMEX and its executives knew that because BITMEX served U.S. customers, it was required to implement an AML program that included a KYC component but chose to flaunt those requirements, requiring only that customers provide an email address to use BITMEX’s services. Indeed, senior executives each knew that customers residing in the U.S. continued to access BITMEX’s trading platform through at least in or about 2018, and that BITMEX policies nominally in place to prevent such trading were toothless or easily overridden to serve BITMEX’s bottom line goal of obtaining revenue through the U.S. market without regard to U.S. criminal laws. Corporate executives took affirmative steps purportedly designed to exempt BITMEX from the application of U.S. laws like AML and KYC requirements, despite knowing of BITMEX’s obligation to implement such programs by operating in the U.S. As part of BITMEX’s willful evasion of U.S. AML laws, the company lied to a bank about the purpose and nature of a subsidiary to allow BITMEX to pump millions of dollars through the U.S. financial system.

Hayes, Delo, and Reed, BITMEX’s three founders and top executives, and Dwyer, another top executive, all previously entered guilty pleas for violating the Bank Secrecy Act and were sentenced in 2022. The corporation entered a guilty plea on July 10, 2024, and was sentenced today.

In addition to the fine, BITMEX was sentenced to two years’ probation.

Mr. Podolsky praised the outstanding investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New York Money Laundering Investigation Squad.

The prosecution is being handled by the Office’s Illicit Finance & Money Laundering Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jessica Greenwood and Thane Rehn are in charge of the prosecution.

[Carth]

ooooh you're right, he's a wrong un. . . upsetting the Banks of America gets my vote

Forgot to add, what do you think Farage will do with all those ill gotten gains?

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by Itshim

Have problems in Wales .leader resigning, reported to police and released with out charge. MS thought to going to plaid.

It’s no big deal. There was no public outrage when Liberal Democrat Cameron Thomas was arrested on suspicion of assault and controlling and coercive behaviour last June. Or any of the others over the years.

Even when John Prescott punched that guy on the High Street all those years ago, Tony Blair didn’t think it was a big deal.

“John is John!” he said, blithely and with a big grin on his face.

But when it’s a Reform UK politician, people tear down walls in the rush to condemn them and their party. It’s pathetic, really, isn’t it?

[Carth]

Let them keep kicking out at them, it's probably doing more to bolster the Reform votes than anything else

Originally Posted by Carth

ooooh you're right, he's a wrong un. . . upsetting the Banks of America gets my vote

Forgot to add, what do you think Farage will do with all those ill gotten gains?

He didn’t "upset the Banks" (the Department of Justice isn’t a bank), he broke the law and pled guilty…

I think Reform will use the money to employ campaign managers and branch coordinators in hundreds of seats across the country (they’re already advertising for them), pay for more mail drops and door-to-door canvassing to identify switching voters and non-voters who might be persuaded to turn out, pay for more data gathering and analysis, and then use this info by paying for specifically targeted social media ads and mainstream media in any upcoming elections (Parliamentary and Local), and probably to pay for more Policy experts to help give shape to more policies than "crypto is good" and "ship brown people back"….

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Carth

Let them keep kicking out at them, it's probably doing more to bolster the Reform votes than anything else

Yet more wishful thinking!

Nigel Farage more unpopular than ever, new poll shows

Nigel Farage now has a net favourability rating of -45, identical to Sir Keir Starmer’s score just before his resignation as prime minister

A new poll conducted by YouGov shows that almost seven in ten Britons (69 per cent) say they have an unfavourable opinion of the Reform leader.

While this is within the margin of error of last month’s figure (67 per cent), it is the highest figure recorded by YouGov's tracker for Mr Farage in the ten years it has run.

This includes nearly six in ten Britons (57 per cent) seeing Mr Farage very unfavourably, while just 24 per cent have a favourable opinion of the Reform UK leader.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-b3049761.html

[Carth]

Ask Hugh about my opinion of polls

And Hugh did at least answer the question (quite well too) about what Farage is probably going to do with the cash