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The Conservative Party has accepted a donation from the director of a company that used convicted fraudster and Nigel Farage aide George Cottrell as a stalking horse to place bets.
In the second quarter donation releases for 2026 with the Electoral Commission, it was revealed that the Conservative Party has taken £50,000 in three instalments from Adam Stephen Franks, a former director and current shareholder at the Star Lizard Consulting betting syndicate.
In court documents released late last year, reviewed by Byline Times, Tony Bloom, the founder of the syndicate, admitted to using Cottrell as a stalking horse. Bets that made $3.7 million profit were allegedly placed using betting accounts created under George Cottrell’s name, according to Guardian reporting on the court case.
Tony Bloom, the founder of Star Lizard was sued by one of his former employees, Ryan Dudfield, over an alleged agreement to share the profits from the Cottrell account. Dudfield believed he was owed a sum potentially stretching into the millions from the profit, though this was denied by Bloom.
Gambling syndicates like Star Lizard often end up with their accounts getting closed down because of the size of the wins and the calculated nature of the bets. Instead they use high-spenders, known as ‘whales’ to place bets on their behalf. Cottrell had a reputation as a high-roller who was not particularly successful, which meant he was a whale that could be used by the syndicate.
According to the court document reviewed by Byline Times the arrangement between Cottrell and Star Lizard ended in October 2025.
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According to Bloom’s defence, Cottrell’s Sportsbet.io account, for most of the period that the syndicate controlled it, was in net loss. The losses peaked at a net loss of $13.7 million, one month after Star Lizard controlled it, before the syndicate then took it into a position of net win.
Adam Franks, the Conservative donor, was previously a director at Star Lizard Consulting, the firm that runs the syndicate, and now owns a substantial portion of the firm.
Companies House documents show that Franks first took a 25% stake in the firm in 2016, which later became 75% in August 2025, meaning that Franks had a stake in the firm while it was using Cottrell’s accounts to place bets.
According to a 2016 profile of Star Lizard, Franks is integral to the Star Lizard operation. He is a friend of Bloom’s from university and has worked as the financial director of many of Bloom’s businesses. He also sits on the board of Brighton and Hove Albion football club alongside Bloom who is the owner and chairman of the club.
According to Bloom’s defence in the case brought by Dudfield, Bloom was to keep 60% of profits from Cottrell’s bets, Cottrell 33% and Dudfield 7%.
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During the court case, it was alleged that the Star Lizard syndicate agreed not to place bets through sites in which Cottrell had a stake, such as Tether Bet, though Bloom’s defence denied that the syndicate had ever used Tether Bet at all. Cottrell has previously denied having any relationship to Tether Bet beyond being a customer.
Sportsbet.io advertises itself as the best crypto sports betting and casino site.
Franks’ name also appears in the Paradise Papers leak of offshore investments in tax havens. He is listed in the papers as a shareholder of igame holdings P.L.C., a Malta based gambling company which focused on the Nordic and Central European markets before it was sold to Unibet in 2015. It is unclear from the Paradise Papers how long Franks held the shares for.
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by either Adam Franks or the Conservative Party.
Franks told Byline Times that he made the donation in a personal capacity, but did not respond to our question about whether or not he profited from the Cottrell account.
A Conservative Party Spokesperson said: “All donations accepted by the Conservative Party are permissible and are properly declared and reported through the Electoral Commission.”