DavyCrockettsHat

Yesterday, Reform UK dropped a billionaire bombshell via their pet [paid] media channels. Ben Delo — one of the UK's youngest self-made billionaires, declared that he would re-migrate to the UK in order to donate to Nigel Farage's pension fund. I had questions — I went looking. A mathematician and tech entrepreneur, he made his fortune in cryptocurrency as co-founder of BitMEX alongside two others in 2014. By 2018, he was reportedly the UK's first Bitcoin billionaire. So far, so standard for this type of guy. But when you start reading about those he has donated money to, and the circles in which he moves, things become a bit murkier. There are few firm details about Delo's philanthropy, but among other things, he helped fund Toby Young's Free Speech Union. He maintains a suite of offices called The Sanctuary, close to Westminster Abbey, in which he allows 'guests' to use his facilities for free. Podcasts, office space, networking events. The notorious Triggernometry podcast, hosted by Konstantin Kisin, records from the Sanctuary. From which he told the world that Rishi Sunak could not be British because he is a brown Hindu. Other notable purveyors of Ben Delo's generous office complex are: Rupert Lowe, Ben Habib, Kemi Badenoch [multiple times], Claire Fox [and her Academy of Ideas] and his close friend, Jordan Peterson. A genuine smörgåsbord of right-wing, free speech warriors. Another feature of Delo's philanthropy is his summer party in Westminster Abbey. Attended last year by such notables as Matt Goodwin, Maurice Glassman and Paul Coleman — director of ADF International, the Christian law firm that opposes abortion. When Nigel Farage gave testimony to the US Congress last year, he was flanked by Lorcán Price from ADF. The ADF helped topple Roe V Wade in the US and have cosied up to Farage in recent years. Watch this space for Reform UK's forthcoming anti-abortion stance, I'd suggest. Of course, it's widely reported that Delo pleaded guilty to financial crimes by failing to implement anti-money laundering controls within his company and received a 30-month probation sentence alongside a $10 million fine. In 2025, the crypto president pardoned him. According to the Guardian, Delo has been biding his time, burnishing his reputation since receiving the seal of Trump approval [and by extension, of course, Farage's]. He is now launching himself into the UK political sphere as the latest white knight to attach his steed to Nigel Farage's rickety bandwagon. The timing yesterday was not coincidental, nor was its method of delivery. It's no secret that Reform UK have been fighting to keep the spotlight in recent weeks. Dropping poll numbers testify to that. Farage and Delo coordinated their announcement yesterday to coincide with a lull in the war [supposedly] in order that they maximise the headlines. And it worked. But, as you can see from the examples above, Delo runs in the same right/far-right circles as all the others. Propping up some of the most hardline anti-immigration and Christian Nationalist figures. This isn't a story about money — these people run together. It's an assault on our British freedoms. We need to be VERY wary of them.