A Polymarket account registered under the name of George Cottrell, a convicted fraudster who has financially supported Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, received $8.8 million in cryptocurrency from unidentified sources in 2024 and used the funds to wager on Donald Trump winning the U.S. election, the Financial Times reported.

The account, listed on Polymarket as "GCottrell93", placed the funds on a Trump victory and generated $4.46 million in profit after the election outcome, according to the FT. Nearly all of the money was then transferred out to other crypto wallets. It remains unclear who supplied the funds and who ultimately received the winnings.

Polymarket, a decentralized prediction market built on the Polygon blockchain where users wager on real-world outcomes using cryptocurrency, saw record trading volumes during the 2024 U.S. election cycle, with billions of dollars staked on the presidential race alone.

Citing public blockchain data, the FT said the account was funded in late October 2024 through two crypto exchanges. It received $7 million from OKX, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, in five separate tranches and another $1.83 million routed through ChangeNOW, a cryptocurrency swapping service. Each time funds arrived, they were immediately staked on Trump winning the election, the report said.

The Polymarket account has not been formally linked to Cottrell. Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has said he has "high confidence" that the account belongs to him, after previously identifying it in connection with a $550,000 loss on a bet concerning U.S. strikes on Iran. Cottrell's lawyers declined to comment to the FT on his finances or on specific transactions, and said their silence should not be interpreted as acceptance of the FT's findings. Reform UK did not respond to the newspaper.

Farage and Cottrell

The FT report follows an earlier Sunday Times investigation that found Cottrell had funded parts of Farage's operation in the year before Farage won his parliamentary seat. According to that report, Cottrell paid for staff, private security, transport, travel and accommodation for the Reform UK leader, benefits Farage did not declare and later denied were required to be registered.

Under the MPs' code of conduct, members must disclose gifts, benefits and hospitality that "might reasonably be thought by others to influence [their] actions or words." The Sunday Times reported that Cottrell had covered Farage's security costs for months and had recruited and paid three staff members to manage Farage's social media.

The same investigation also linked Cottrell to a crypto-gambling platform it said was implicated in "potentially illegal" unlicensed betting in the UK. Since the election, the Sunday Times reported, Cottrell has allowed Farage to use a five-storey house he rents near Buckingham Palace, close to Reform's headquarters. Cottrell's lawyer said that, "as a close friend," Cottrell "did, and does, allow Mr Farage to stay in" the property.

Both the Sunday Times and the FT have raised questions about whether money from unidentified sources helped pay for benefits provided to Farage or Reform UK. Cottrell has declined to answer those questions, including questions about who beneficially owns the Polymarket wallet. The concentration of anonymous crypto funding flowing through prediction markets and into political circles has drawn attention from regulators on both sides of the Atlantic, though no regulator has publicly linked these specific transactions to any investigation.

Cottrell, 32, was born into an aristocratic family. In 2016, U.S. prosecutors charged him with 21 counts related to an alleged "dark web" money laundering scheme. Under a plea agreement, he pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and the remaining charges were dropped. He served eight months in prison. The Sunday Times reported that he has since applied for a U.S. presidential pardon.

Farage's crypto ties

The report adds to scrutiny of Farage's connections to crypto-related funding and lobbying. Earlier this month, it emerged that bankers had filed a suspicious activity report over a £5 million ($6.7 million) gift to Farage from Christopher Harborne, a billionaire investor in Tether. Farage was also reported to the UK's standards watchdog over alleged crypto lobbying.

Farage resigned his Clacton seat on July 8 and triggered a by-election that he described as a "people versus establishment" contest. He denied wrongdoing after weeks of scrutiny over his finances. Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens refused to stand candidates, dismissing the contest as a stunt.

A record field of 34 candidates is contesting the August 13 vote. Farage's most prominent challenger is satirical candidate Count Binface, who describes himself as an "intergalactic space warrior" from the planet Sigma IX and campaigns while wearing a metal dustbin on his head.