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Nigel Farage’s recent US trip to meet X owner Elon Musk was partly funded by a convicted felon.
The latest register, published on 24 February 2025 includes details of two US trips taken by the Clacton MP. The first, a three-day visit to Palm Beach, Florida in December 2024, where Farage met with Elon Musk at Mar-a-Lago – the luxury resort owned by US President Donald Trump.
Two months after the controversial visit, Farage has now declared that convicted criminal George Cottrell paid for flights from Teterboro in New Jersey to Palm Beach where Farage met with Musk. The cost of the flights was £15,276.
Who is ‘Posh George’? Meet the Aristocrat and Convicted Fraudster Close to Nigel Farage
George Cottrell was Farage’s Chief of Staff until he was found guilty of wire fraud in 2017. He’s now returned to the Reform leader’s side as an advisor
George Cottrell, a former British financier, has long been associated with Farage and previously served as head of fundraising for the UK Independence Party, prior to his arrest in 2016 in the US where he was accused of wire fraud.
Cottrell, also known as “posh George” pleaded guilty to wire fraud and subsequently spent eight months in prison.
This isn’t the first time Cottrell has funded Farage’s overseas trips, In April 2024 the Reform UK leader attended a three-day conference in Belgium, with Cottrell stumping up over £9,000 for the “Return travel and accommodation for Mr Farage and one staffer and security provision”.
Farage also confirmed that his visit to the US, for Donald Trump’s second inauguration last month, cost £27,616 and was funded by Christopher Harborne.
Harborne, a businessman who deals in private planes, and the sale of jet fuels has heavily backed political parties associated with Mr Farage for many years – donating over £10 million to the Brexit Party and Reform UK since 2019 according to Electoral Commission records.
In total the Reform UK leader’s latest parliamentary financial declarations reveal that he accepted a further £133,000 in outside earnings and donations since the start of 2025, bringing his total non-parliamentary income to more than £1 million a year.
This income includes a further £4,328, declared since the start of the year, in payments for Farage’s posts on Musk’s X social media platform, on top of previously declared payments from the company.
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Nigel Farage the “Brand Ambassador”
This month, Farage also declared receipt of another £91,200 for his role as the “Brand Ambassador” for Direct Bullion, a Mayfair-registered firm, which claims to be “the UK’s No.1” Gold bullion dealer. Remarkably, Farage earned this huge sum for working just four hours a month.
The £91,200 paid to the Clacton MP in January, follows a £189,300 payment from the same company in December 2024 – again for working a “maximum” of four hours per month, with some of the fee paying for some work “undertaken prior” to his election to Parliament.
The latest available accounts, published on Companies House for DB London Ltd which trades under the name Direct Bullion show the firm, who has handed over £280,000 to Mr Farage in the last three months, had just five employees and £64,037 cash in the bank at the end of January 2024.
Nigel Farage was approached for comment.