Yesterday, the UK’s Financial Times reported that the UK Labour government is about to announce a new regulation: corporations donating to UK political parties must now disclose the true individual identities behind such donations. This regulation stems from a series of scandals involving foreign money infiltrating the UK political system. Yet when “foreign funds” are mentioned, one cannot help but focus on an “invisible” crypto billionaire—holding dual nationality—who has been bankrolling the “UK version of Trump.”

According to the latest quarterly political donation data released by the UK Electoral Commission on March 5, 2026, Reform UK topped all UK political parties’ quarterly fundraising again, raising £5.5 million. However, £3 million of that came from a single donor—listed as originating from Thailand. The donor is named Christopher Harborne—but sometimes goes by Chakrit Sakunkrit. He resides in Thailand and holds Thai citizenship. Under his Thai name, he controls approximately 12% of the equity in Tether’s parent company—the world’s largest stablecoin—and operates one of the world’s largest private aviation fuel networks. Simultaneously, he funnels political funding thousands of miles away to a UK right-wing party. Over the past two years, he has staked this wealth on a single bet: propelling Nigel Farage and Reform UK into positions of power in British politics.

Christopher Charles Sherriff Harborne was born in England in December 1962. He completed his secondary education at Westminster School, then studied Engineering and Management jointly at Downing College, University of Cambridge. He later earned an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, graduating in 1988. His first job was as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company. In 2000, he founded Sherriff Global Group—a commodities trading firm initially focused on high-risk offshore services. Around 2005, he relocated to Thailand and registered AML Global Ltd., an aviation fuel brokerage. In 2011, he formally acquired Thai citizenship, adopting the name Chakrit Sakunkrit. His family situation remains unknown; he never grants media interviews, rarely appears in public, and maintains no social media accounts.

In 2011—when Bitcoin was still a secretive jargon among tech enthusiasts—Harborne bought in. In 2014, he added Ethereum to his portfolio. But what truly elevated his status in the crypto world was a hack in August 2016. That summer, the exchange Bitfinex suffered a cyberattack, losing roughly $72 million worth of Bitcoin. Unable to fully reimburse users immediately, Bitfinex issued BFX tokens as compensation. Harborne chose to buy them—and kept buying. Ultimately, under the name Chakrit Sakunkrit, he accumulated approximately 12% equity in both Bitfinex and DigFinex—the parent company of Tether. Holding 12% of DigFinex places Harborne squarely at the core of the global crypto-dollar ecosystem.

Yet this equity also brought him trouble. In March 2023, The Wall Street Journal published an investigative report suggesting he had deliberately concealed his identity when opening an account at Signature Bank using his Thai name. Harborne promptly filed a lawsuit accusing The Wall Street Journal of publishing false allegations. Subsequently, the newspaper removed the paragraphs referencing Harborne and AML Global and issued an editor’s note stating the removal was intended to avoid any possible implication. The lawsuit was permitted to proceed.

Beyond aviation fuel and crypto equity, Harborne holds a third identity: one of the biggest individual political donors in UK history. Early on, he donated to the Conservative Party; in 2019, he shifted £6 million to Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party. In 2024, the Conservatives suffered a crushing defeat in the general election, paving the way for Labour to take office. Labour has taken a clearly skeptical stance toward cryptocurrency, while the Conservatives have long moved sluggishly on crypto regulatory issues. Reform UK thus became the sole viable option. In Q3 2025, Harborne donated £9 million to Reform UK—setting a new record for the largest single donation ever made by a living individual to a single UK political party. Across all of 2025, his total donations to Reform UK exceeded £12 million.

Harborne rarely discusses his donation motivations publicly—but it is hard for outsiders to ignore another logical thread: he holds ~12% equity in the parent company of the world’s largest stablecoin, Tether. If the UK becomes a crypto-friendly regulatory environment, it would deliver direct commercial value to his core assets. Reform UK’s open embrace of cryptocurrency occurred only after receiving Harborne’s large-scale donations. Farage announced that, if Reform UK wins power, it will introduce the Crypto Assets and Digital Finance Bill, pledging to cut crypto capital gains tax, allow tax payments in cryptocurrency, and establish a national Bitcoin reserve. In June 2025, Reform UK became the first major UK political party to officially accept cryptocurrency political donations.

In the US, the story of the crypto industry pouring money into Trump’s campaign to reclaim regulatory influence has already been told. In the UK, the same script is playing out—only with different protagonists. The money, however, keeps flowing. The impact of this bet is already partially visible: Reform UK raised £18.6 million in 2025—surpassing the Conservatives’ £13.4 million and Labour’s £8.2 million—to become the UK’s top fundraising party. If this trajectory continues, a party explicitly friendly toward cryptocurrency could soon govern the UK—and those who placed their bets early stand to benefit the most.

[Foresight News]