New disclosures suggest Christopher Harborne, who recently gave £1m to the office of former UK prime minister Boris Johnson, helped stablecoin operator Tether circumvent a block on access to the US banking system.
The Wall Street Journal said on Friday that false documents and shell companies were used to open bank accounts that were then used to move money on behalf of Tether and its sister company, Bitfinex, which had been prevented from making dollar transfers.
One of the companies apparently used to move money on behalf of Tether and Bitfinex was owned by Christopher Harborne, himself a shareholder in both companies, the WSJ said.
Harborne owns around 13 percent of Tether Holdings, the legal entity issuing tether tokens, as well as a similar amount of shares in Bitfinex, a cryptocurrency exchange with significant common ownership, the WSJ said last month, citing non-public documents.
Tether is the largest US dollar stablecoin, with $72bn in assets. Stablecoins are widely used in the cryptocurrency markets and in countries subject to sanctions or with otherwise restricted access to the global financial system.
Harborne’s donations to Johnson and Brexit
Harborne, who is resident in Thailand, is a major political donor in the UK, where he has supported Brexit and the former UK prime minister, Boris Johnson.
In January 2023 Harborne gave £1m to Johnson’s office, the largest-ever donation to an individual UK member of parliament.
In November 2021 cryptocurrency news site Protos said that Harborne had received more than $70million in tether tokens in early 2019. These tokens were paid to an account in the name of an alternative Thai identity held by Harborne, “Chakrit Sakunkrit”, Protos said.
According to Protos, shortly after receiving tether tokens Harborne made large donations to pro-Brexit political parties in the UK.
UK electoral commission records show Harborne donated roughly £10m to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK between April 2019 and February 2020.
In 2020 a journalist on BBC current affairs programme Panorama attempted to interview Farage about Harborne’s donations to his party and the fact that the donor had two separate identities, but Farage cut the call short.
In early 2019, the New York attorney general filed a lawsuit against Tether, alleging that the stablecoin operator had lied about its reserve backing and operated with insufficient reserves in 2018, while also commingling client and corporate funds. The case was settled in 2021.
Harborne, arms sales, Johnson and Ukraine
Christopher Harborne is also the largest single shareholder in UK defence technology Qinetiq, with a stake exceeding 10 percent.
In November Qinetiq said that its income had been boosted by the Ukraine war, with rising sales of products ranging from battlefield robots to communications systems.
Among global politicians, former UK prime minister Johnson has been the most vocal supporter of arms shipments to Ukraine, even after leaving office in July 2022.
Last month former Israel prime minister Naftali Bennett said on his YouTube channel that he had been close to mediating a settlement between Russia and Ukraine in March 2022, in the early days following Russia’s invasion.
Over the course of several days the two warring sides exchanged a “marathon of drafts” of a negotiated settlement through him, said Bennett.
However, Bennett said on YouTube, the agreement failed. Boris Johnson and Joe Biden took an aggressive line against a settlement between Kiev and Moscow and blocked it, insisting that the Ukrainians continue to fight Putin, Bennett said. He said he regarded this decision as wrong.
Tether’s response
On March 3, Tether responded to the Wall Street Journal article, saying it contained stale allegations from long ago and was “wholly inaccurate and misleading”.
“Bitfinex and Tether have world-class compliance programs and adhere to applicable Anti-Money Laundering, Know Your Customer, and Counter-Terrorist Financing legal requirements”, Tether said.
“Bitfinex and Tether are proud partners of global law enforcement, and routinely and voluntarily assist the United States Department of Justice and other law enforcement organizations across the world in preventing money laundering, terrorism, and other crimes by bad actors,” Tether said.
On February 21 2024 the Wall Street Journal added the following clarification to its 3 March 2023 article.
“A previous version of this article included a section regarding Christopher Harborne and AML Global, which applied for an account at Signature Bank. The section has been removed to avoid any potential implication that AML’s attempt to open an account there was part of an effort by Tether, Bitfinex or related companies to mislead banks, or that Harborne or AML withheld or falsified information during the application process.”
On 4 March 2024 New Money Review also removed a section of this article referring to the links between Harborne, AML, Bitfinex and Tether.
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