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LONDON (Reuters) – The British agency charged with combating serious crime opened Thursday an investigation into Brexit's sponsor, Arron Banks, and one of the main groups who campaigned for the EU to leave the country. European Union at the sole source of a million pounds sterling loans.
PHOTO FILE: Arron Banks and Andy Wigmore, who led the Leave.Eu referendum campaign for Brexit, eat pork pies donated by an anti-Brexit activist as they arrive to testify before the Parliamentary Committee on Culture, Media and Sport in London, Great Britain, June 12, 2018. REUTERS / Simon Dawson
In addition, the Electoral Commission has reported serious violations in the funding of the "Leave.EU" campaign since the 2016 Brexit referendum, including illicit donor loans and the concealment of financial transactions.
The Commission stated that alleged criminal offenses had been committed and that Banks was not the true source of loans of 8 million pounds ($ 10 million) granted to Brexit campaign groups.
Announcing the investigation, the National Crime Agency (NCA) – which generally focuses on fighting serious and organized crime – said its involvement was due to offenses other than the violation of the electoral law.
Banks, photographed with Donald Trump and Brexiteer leader Nigel Farage in front of a golden elevator shortly after Trump's victory in the 2016 US presidential elections, said he was pleased with the investigation.
"We welcome this investigation as it is an opportunity for us to clarify the situation," Banks told Reuters.
In the referendum of June 23, 2016, 17.4 million voters, or 51.9%, supported the departure of the EU, while 16.1 million, or 48.1%, supported the wish to stay.
Opponents have repeatedly called for the resumption of the vote, alleging financial irregularities in the Brexit campaign and a possible foreign – or even Russian – financing of the campaign. Great Britain must leave on March 29, 2019.
Banks said he wrote to Prime Minister Theresa May to request an investigation and accused the Electoral Commission of opposing Brexit.
Helen Hayes, an opposition labor legislator, called for the Brexit ruling while the NCA was conducting the investigation. "The government can not and must not continue blindly to the constitutional and economic precipice of Brexit as long as such serious allegations of undermining our democracy remain," she said on Twitter.
LOANS FOR BREXIT?
Brexit supporters reject speculation that foreign funds, including Russian money, would have been used in the campaign, saying that attempts to stop Brexit would plunge Great Britain into a serious political crisis.
The Electoral Commission has stated that certain loans made to Leave.EU and Better for the Country Limited (BFTCL) in 2015 and 2016 by Rock Holdings Limited, an incorporated company in the Isle of Man, were prohibited.
Banks, Elizabeth Bilney and others in the campaign have concealed the true details of financial transactions.
"Rock Holdings is a company that I own and control and I am a British taxpayer, no Russian or foreign money has ever entered," Banks told Reuters.
Before the referendum, the banks financed Leave.EU, a campaign led by Farage, then leader of the British Independence Party.
Banks has repeatedly dismissed questions about the source of his own wealth. He owns a successful insurance company and has already donated to the Conservative Party.
"In our analysis, the historical and historical benefits of Rock Services were not enough to enable it to finance the 8 million pounds," said the Election Commission, adding that she suspected the company of not finance the payment from its British revenues, as required by the British government. electoral law.
Edited by Stephen Addison and David Stamp
