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Reform UK have been processing cryptocurrency donations through a Polish regulatory regime which previously housed a Cambodian crime syndicate sanctioned by the US Treasury for laundering $4 billion in illicit funds – including proceeds from North Korean state-sponsored cyber heists used to finance Pyongyang’s weapons programme, Byline Times can reveal.
A detailed legal analysis provided to Byline Times exposes fundamental structural weaknesses in Poland’s Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) registration system – the framework through which crypto firms, such as the one used by Reform, obtain regulatory cover.
Radom is the payment processor through which Nigel Farage’s party accepts crypto donations. The analysis, by leading Polish lawyer Robert Nogacki, managing partner and founder of Warsaw-based Kancelaria Prawna Skarbiec, confirms that UK authorities have no meaningful power to scrutinise the arrangement.
Responding to our findings, MPs called for the use of cryptocurrencies in political donations to be entirely banned.
Labour MP Ben Goldsborough, who has been campaigning for regulation of crypto donations, said: “Cryptocurrencies are opening a dangerous back door into our democracy, and as Byline Times has shown, our laws haven’t caught up with the threat.
Describing Reform as “the only party whose leader openly admires Vladimir Putin”, Goldsborough added: “If we’re serious about defending our democracy, we should close this loophole now and ban crypto donations to political parties.”
‘An Exportable Badge of EU Credibility‘
For a small fee and an electronic application, anyone can obtain a Polish VASP entry within 14 days. There is no minimum capital requirement, insurance obligation, inspection of actual business operations, or verification of who truly owns the company. The entire architecture rests on self-declarations – which, as Nogacki noted, “are worthless against organised crime”.
Poland did not build a supervisory regime for crypto firms, Nogacki told Byline Times, but rather “an automated registration roll – low-friction by design, high-risk by consequence – that turned a $150 formality into an exportable badge of EU credibility”.
Nogacki has practised tax, business and corporate law for over 15 years and was awarded four European Medals from the EU’s European Economic and Social Committee in recognition of his legal expertise.
As of early 2026, Poland’s VASP register contains more than 1,800 entries. In 2024 alone, approximately 740 new entities were added. The vast majority are not recognisable financial businesses but freshly incorporated companies with generic names and no commercial track record in Poland.
The most dramatic illustration of what this system enabled is the Huione Group, a Cambodian conglomerate that registered its crypto exchange arm as a Polish VASP, then processed at least $4 billion in illicit funds – including money stolen by North Korean state hackers for the rogue regime’s weapons programme.
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Radom and the UK Oversight Gap
Radom’s crypto operations are conducted through its Polish entity, Radom Pay, registered in Warsaw, which is not registered with the UK Financial Conduct Authority. All cryptocurrency services on the Radom platform are provided solely by the Polish entity, not by Radom Pay Limited, its English-registered company.
Spotlight on Corruption, the anti-corruption campaign group, has submitted written evidence to Parliament warning that Radom “is not answerable to a UK regulator” and “would not face sanctions in the UK if it was found to have acted in breach of its political financing laws”.
According to Spotlight’s Senior Advocacy Advisor Tim Picton:
Radom pools wallets from multiple clients – including Reform. While it is technically possible to trace money flowing into Bitcoin and Ethereum wallets, it is not possible to specify which donations belong to Reform and which go to other clients. This means that Reform does not have to declare its own crypto wallets because donations flow through intermediary wallets hosted by Radom. It is not currently clear whether the money is then converted to fiat currency and sent to Reform’s bank account, or transferred directly to a Reform crypto wallet.
While making clear he has “no specific information suggesting Radom is engaged in improper conduct”, Nogacki told Byline Times that as UK regulators have no authority over a Polish VASP, any efforts to exert oversight on Reform donations received via Radom would need slow and cumbersome efforts between multiple authorities in the UK and Poland.
Describing Poland’s VASP rules as far below the “regulatory minimum” expected for a company processing political donations, Nogacki pinpointed grave weaknesses in the UK’s Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.
The Act mandates verifying the immediate donor, he said, but overlooks the sort of due diligence needed for cryptoassets – such as looking behind the immediate transaction to trace where the funds ultimately came from.