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Original poster

Where did Fiona Cottrell get all that money?

163 replies

Kingdomofsleep · 10/07/2026 16:04

I've been a bit fascinated by this latest news about Farage and all the money.

The latest detail is that Fiona Cottrell, the mother of Posh George the crypto fraudster guy, gave Reform donations of £1m and £500k over the past few years.

However! She is a retired stylist who lives in a cottage worth between 500k and 1m, and inherited just £1.5m from her husband when he died. So, comfortably off, but not with millions to spare.

I mean, my house is worth around that (mortgaged), and my dh would raise eyebrows if I donated so much as £500 to a political party. Let alone £1.5m!

She seemingly hasn't earnt it or inherited it. So it seems like someone has given it to her to give to Reform. That someone didn't want to give it to Reform in his own name. If this is true, it's fraud apparently. Who is it? This could be so big.

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/police-investigate-reform-donations-by-mother-of-fraudster-who-bankrolled-farage-3kd826j7h

Police investigate Reform donations by mother of fraudster who bankrolled Farage

Fiona Cottrell, mother of George Cottrell, who has been funding the Reform UK leader’s operations, gave £500,000 to the party before the last general election

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/police-investigate-reform-donations-by-mother-of-fraudster-who-bankrolled-farage-3kd826j7h

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18
BeardySchnauzer · 25/07/2026 22:10

Yes there was an email that undid them Unfortunately as I suspect there was a lot more to it than they were able to disclose

SwedishEdith · 25/07/2026 22:07

The bank couldn't have told him he was being debanked because of suspected money laundering (if that was the reason) because tipping off is also a crime.

Original poster
Kingdomofsleep · 25/07/2026 22:05

Teanbiscuits33 · 25/07/2026 22:04

No they didn’t admit to it per se, an internal document was found saying that he was a xenophobic grifter, but the reason was never found out. It could well have been money laundering, because there are laws against debanking for political views so they wouldn’t have been allowed to do that.

Show quote history

Yeah that makes sense... hopefully the Times Insight team will get to that. The Coutts story was a big story at the time so many people might remember it

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SwedishEdith · 25/07/2026 22:04

They only need suspicions it is money laundering. Anyone in a financial supervisory role who suspects money laundering is committing a crime by not reporting it. But all that noise (distraction) from Farage got Coutts to apologise, if I remember rightly.

Teanbiscuits33 · 25/07/2026 22:04

Kingdomofsleep · 25/07/2026 22:00

No I've just reread the story and I think that one was on Coutts, they admitted it was all because they didn't like his views, or something, so they were de-banking him for that. I remember I felt like I was on Farage's side at the time about that. I can't find anything different about it now, he settled for damages with Nat West the parent bank I think.

Show quote history

No they didn’t admit to it per se, an internal document was found saying that he was a xenophobic grifter, but the reason was never found out. It could well have been money laundering, because there are laws against debanking for political views so they wouldn’t have been allowed to do that.

Original poster
Kingdomofsleep · 25/07/2026 22:00

Kingdomofsleep · 25/07/2026 21:56

Wow this reminds me, remember when Farage had his Coutts account frozen and he complained it was because they didn't like his politics? I wonder if it was actually because they had evidence his money was well dodgy... I'll try and find out more

No I've just reread the story and I think that one was on Coutts, they admitted it was all because they didn't like his views, or something, so they were de-banking him for that. I remember I felt like I was on Farage's side at the time about that. I can't find anything different about it now, he settled for damages with Nat West the parent bank I think.

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Original poster
Kingdomofsleep · 25/07/2026 21:56

Wow this reminds me, remember when Farage had his Coutts account frozen and he complained it was because they didn't like his politics? I wonder if it was actually because they had evidence his money was well dodgy... I'll try and find out more

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TopPocketFind · 25/07/2026 21:52

From Pogrund on x

Reform had its bank account frozen at height of general election after potentially illegal donations from George Cottrell's mother and Richard Tice We reveal Arbuthnot Latham, its bank, blocked payments for two weeks after suspect transaction

Farage and Tice have vocally campaigned against the "banking establishment". Yet neither man has ever discussed the fact the party's account were frozen by the day of the general election in 2024. This came after bankers referred £1m+ of suspect payments to the NCA.

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/reform-uk-bank-account-frozen-george-cottrell-mother-3vr75zb9r

Persephonia1966 · 25/07/2026 21:39

Kingdomofsleep · 25/07/2026 21:33

She's not wealthy though, that's the point. She's just got a fairly ordinary house and she's inherited a comfortable but still-on-the-ordinary-spectrum amount of money from her late dh. She's not much wealthier than your average middle class widow.

She's just suddenly magicked half a million pounds out of nowhere and then given it straight to Reform... multiple times.

This thread is not about being envious of her wealth, she isn't particularly wealthy! People are not understanding this. It's about Somebody secretly moving huge wodges of money around via these pawns, the Cottrells and Farage.

Edited
Show quote history

Yes.
If my teenager suddenly had ten grand in his bank account and explained it was so that he could transfer it via his bank account to another person my first thought would not be "gosh my teenager is wealthy" it would be "oh shit what's going on". This is like that, but on a much bigger scale (and involving adults with fully developed prefrontal cortexes). If someone transfers a vast amount of money to someone else and it's impossible to understand where they got it from themselves that's a big red flag.

Original poster
Kingdomofsleep · 25/07/2026 21:36

TopPocketFind · 25/07/2026 21:11

More from the Times

This is interesting- why only for two weeks? I've got more reading homework to do haha

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Original poster
Kingdomofsleep · 25/07/2026 21:33

Badvocthebad · 25/07/2026 21:16

Its very easy to hoard wealth when you pay no tax

She's not wealthy though, that's the point. She's just got a fairly ordinary house and she's inherited a comfortable but still-on-the-ordinary-spectrum amount of money from her late dh. She's not much wealthier than your average middle class widow.

She's just suddenly magicked half a million pounds out of nowhere and then given it straight to Reform... multiple times.

This thread is not about being envious of her wealth, she isn't particularly wealthy! People are not understanding this. It's about Somebody secretly moving huge wodges of money around via these pawns, the Cottrells and Farage.

OP posts:
Badvocthebad · 25/07/2026 21:16

Its very easy to hoard wealth when you pay no tax

TopPocketFind · 25/07/2026 21:11

More from the Times

Where did Fiona Cottrell get all that money?
TopPocketFind · 25/07/2026 18:02

More investigations

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yv4r5g55do
Police are investigating payments to Reform UK by a company controlled by the party's deputy leader, Richard Tice, BBC News has learned

Teanbiscuits33 · 25/07/2026 16:07

TopPocketFind · 25/07/2026 16:01

The Telegraph is all about small boat crossings and yet is states this

It is understood that the number of threats arriving via small boats is dwarfed by the amount of IRGC-affiliated people entering Britain on legal flights from Europe

I can’t stand that rag. It’s probably even worse than the daily mail, but I found it curious how they published that and then Farage was on social media saying he’s warned about it since April. Well, of course he’d have inside knowledge, wouldn’t he?

It’s a good job not all of us as thick as a two short planks. It’s just so frustrating how he keeps getting away with all this underhand shit and people aren’t connecting the dots no matter what. Makes me want to scoop my own eyeballs out sometimes 🤣

TopPocketFind · 25/07/2026 16:01

The Telegraph is all about small boat crossings and yet is states this

It is understood that the number of threats arriving via small boats is dwarfed by the amount of IRGC-affiliated people entering Britain on legal flights from Europe

TopPocketFind · 25/07/2026 15:57

I read that story about the church warden a while back

Teanbiscuits33 · 25/07/2026 15:55

And now this gets published in the FT

http://archive.today/fqO7c

around about the same time as this in the telegraph.

http://archive.today/MGI3m

It’s so dodgy, I do wonder how long we will be waiting for his loyalists to wake the fuck up.

PerkingFaintly · 23/07/2026 16:28

Oh, and another very interesting part of that article is George Cottrell's alleged friendship with Arkadiy Abramovich, son of Roman Abramovich, since they were teenagers.

PerkingFaintly · 23/07/2026 16:13

TopPocketFind · 23/07/2026 13:30

Another scoop
https://bylinetimes.com/2026/07/23/posh-george-two-passports-and-a-fraudulent-identity-convicted-fraudster-and-nigel-farage-funders-connections-to-reform-uks-murky-financial-structures/

Good grief!

I'm a bit dazed by the torrent of information in that article.

But if it's correct (and this bit seems well-sourced), then George Cottrell had another passport, Swiss, in the name of "Oscar Drewitt' and he used this identity many years ago to work in City corporate finance. He was hired to a financial company by Mehrtash A’zami, who much later became Reform UK's treasurer and has been responsible for vetting the legality of donations to Reform. A'zami is aware of Cottrell's double identity.

And then there's a close-knit nest of Cottrell, A'zami and others who live or have companies in the little seaside town of Tivat, Montenegro – including Christopher Harborne, who lives in Thailand but has a company at the same address in Tivat as A'zami's company.

What a tangled web we weave...

SwedishEdith · 23/07/2026 15:21

I find with the FT that if I copy the headline into Google, I can then get a readable link to the article. Not sure why.

BurntBroccoli · 23/07/2026 15:07

Kingdomofsleep · 23/07/2026 14:21

So, you guys give me a £million each from your ill gotten gains, right, I'll bet it on some low odds games, basically get the same amount back, and pay it to Reform for you, who will deregulate crapto to make your laundering easier from now on. Job done. We'll call it a betting syndicate, Parliament Standards won't GAF. You just have to buy my mate Nigel's girlfriend Ferrari, a Ferrari. OK?

Edited

Hopefully Farage’s house of cards will soon come crashing down once the investigations commence.

Original poster
Kingdomofsleep · 23/07/2026 14:21

So, you guys give me a £million each from your ill gotten gains, right, I'll bet it on some low odds games, basically get the same amount back, and pay it to Reform for you, who will deregulate crapto to make your laundering easier from now on. Job done. We'll call it a betting syndicate, Parliament Standards won't GAF. You just have to buy my mate Nigel's girlfriend Ferrari, a Ferrari. OK?

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