Tether's major shareholder invests £12 million to support the "British version of Trump" in the cryptocurrency sector

Original author: angelilu, Foresight News

Yesterday, the Financial Times in the UK reported that the UK Labour Party government is about to announce a new regulation: companies donating to UK political parties must now disclose the true identities of the individuals behind the donations.

The new regulation arises from a series of scandals involving foreign funds infiltrating British politics. However, when mentioning foreign funds, one cannot overlook a "hidden" crypto billionaire who has funded the "British version of Trump" through dual nationality.

According to the latest quarterly political donation data released by the UK Electoral Commission on March 5, 2026, the Reform UK party topped the quarterly fundraising list again with £5.5 million, but one donation of £3 million came from the same individual, with the source listed as Thailand.

The donor is named Christopher Harborne. Sometimes, he goes by Chakrit Sakunkrit.

He resides in Thailand, holds Thai citizenship, and controls about 12% of the parent company of the world's largest stablecoin, Tether, under his Thai name. He operates one of the largest private aviation fuel networks globally while funneling political funds to right-wing parties in the UK thousands of miles away. Over the past two years, he has bet on one thing: placing Farage and the Reform UK party in positions of power in British politics.

Image source: Lesley Martin / AFP via Getty Images

Cambridge Engineer & Bangkok Recluse

Christopher Charles Sherriff Harborne was born in England in December 1962. He completed his secondary education at Westminster School, whose alumni list includes British prime ministers, judges, and bankers, representing the upper echelon of the imperial elite pipeline.

He then attended Downing College, Cambridge, earning dual degrees in engineering and management. After that, he obtained an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, graduating in 1988.

His first job was as a management consultant at McKinsey, where he worked for five years. At that time, McKinsey consultants typically transitioned to executive positions in investment banks or multinational corporations. But Harborne did not. He went to Asia, worked for a research company, and then founded Sherriff Global Group in 2000, a commodity trading company initially focused on high-risk offshore services, named after his paternal family surname.

Around 2005, he moved his home to Thailand. In the same year, he registered AML Global Ltd., an aviation fuel brokerage. Today, AML Global has over 1,200 supply points worldwide and is one of the largest private jet fuel brokers globally.

In 2011, he officially acquired Thai citizenship, adopting the name Chakrit Sakunkrit. His British citizenship and Thai nationality now coexist in the same person's pocket.

No one knows about his family situation. No spouse, no children, no verifiable records of private life. He never gives media interviews, rarely appears in public, and has no social media accounts. In an attention economy that relies on exposure, he uses complete invisibility as his shield.

Crypto Sector Layout

In 2011, when Bitcoin was still a secret code within geek circles, Harborne bought in. In 2014, he purchased Ethereum, ahead of most institutional investors.

But what truly changed his status in the crypto world was a hacking incident in August 2016.

That summer, the exchange Bitfinex was attacked, losing approximately $72 million worth of Bitcoin—equivalent to nearly $7 billion at today's prices. Bitfinex could not immediately compensate users in full, so it adopted a controversial plan at the time: issuing a token called BFX to all affected users, representing a debt to the exchange, with a promise to redeem it later.

Most users chose to sell off, panicking and discounting, eager to exit.

Harborne chose to buy in and continued to accumulate, ultimately acquiring about 12% of the shares in Bitfinex and its parent company DigFinex under the name Chakrit Sakunkrit.

This was not a small gamble. Tether, under DigFinex, is today the issuer of the world's largest stablecoin, USDT, with daily trading volumes consistently among the top in global crypto assets, and a market capitalization exceeding $140 billion. Holding 12% of DigFinex means Harborne stands at the core of the global crypto dollar system.

However, this stake also brought him trouble. In March 2023, The Wall Street Journal published an investigative report on Tether and Bitfinex's banking arrangements, linking Harborne and his aviation fuel company AML Global to the pathways for accessing the U.S. banking system, suggesting he intentionally concealed his identity when opening an account at Signature Bank under his Thai name Chakrit Sakunkrit.

Harborne subsequently filed a lawsuit, accusing The Wall Street Journal of publishing false allegations of "fraud, money laundering, and funding terrorism," and formally filed in Delaware Superior Court in February 2024. The Wall Street Journal later removed the paragraphs related to Harborne and AML Global from the report and stated in a note: "The removal of this paragraph is to avoid any possible implication... that Harborne or AML engaged in any concealment or falsification of information during the account application process."

The lawsuit was allowed to proceed.

The Biggest Variable in British Politics

Beyond aviation fuel and crypto equity, Harborne has a third identity: one of the largest individual donors in British political history.

His political path is a traceable trajectory of right-wing betting. Early on, he donated to the Conservative Party and contributed £1 million to support Boris Johnson's campaign. However, in 2019, when Brexit negotiations repeatedly bogged down in the Conservative-led parliament, he felt the Conservative Party's determination to push Brexit was insufficient and instead poured £6 million into Farage's Brexit Party, becoming the party's largest financier that year. The Brexit Party subsequently achieved a significant victory in the European Parliament elections.

In September 2023, he accompanied Johnson to Ukraine as a "consultant to Boris Johnson's office" to attend the Yalta European Strategy Forum, reportedly meeting with senior Ukrainian officials and President Zelensky. This identity has never been publicly explained.

In 2024, the Conservative Party suffered a crushing defeat in the elections, and the Labour Party came to power. Both traditional major parties have lost their utility: the Labour Party holds a clearly skeptical stance on cryptocurrencies, with Labour MP Rushanara Ali publicly calling for a ban on political parties accepting crypto donations, labeling them as "potential channels for foreign interference in democracy"; the Conservative Party has long been slow to act on crypto regulation, remaining at the level of mere statements.

Farage's Reform Party is the only option. Farage is often referred to as the British version of Trump.

In the third quarter of 2025, £9 million. The largest single donation from a living donor to a single political party in British political history, setting a record in one go. In the fourth quarter, another £3 million. For the entire year of 2025, his total donations to the Reform Party exceeded £12 million.

An Investment with Expected Returns

Harborne rarely publicly discusses his donation motives, with the rare exception being a brief statement: "The UK has not fully utilized Brexit; we have not kept pace in the technology sector of the 21st century."

However, it is hard for outsiders to ignore a clearer line of logic: he holds about 12% of the shares in the parent company of the world's largest stablecoin, Tether. If the UK becomes a crypto-friendly regulatory environment, it has direct commercial value for his core assets. Political donations, in a sense, are also an investment—just the target is policy, not tokens.

The timeline makes this judgment harder to overlook. The Reform Party's public embrace of cryptocurrencies only occurred after receiving Harborne's substantial donations. Farage announced that if the Reform Party came to power, they would introduce the "Crypto Assets and Digital Finance Act," promising to cut crypto capital gains tax, allow tax payments in cryptocurrencies, and establish a national Bitcoin reserve. In June 2025, the Reform Party became the first major political party in the UK to officially accept crypto political donations. Farage himself then personally invested £215,000, acquiring about 6.3% of the shares in the UK Bitcoin treasury firm Stack BTC.

The Reform Party denies any direct connection between the two. The Liberal Democrats and Labour Party have called for an investigation.

Hidden Logic

In the U.S., the story of the crypto industry pouring money to support Trump and reclaiming regulatory dominance has already been told. In the UK, the same script is being replayed—only the protagonists have changed, but the money is still flowing.

The impact of this bet is already partially visible. The Reform Party raised £18.6 million in 2025, surpassing the Conservative Party's £13.4 million and the Labour Party's £8.2 million, becoming the party with the highest fundraising in the UK. Farage's approval ratings continue to rise, and the Reform Party ranks first in several polls.

If this trajectory continues, a party that is clearly friendly to cryptocurrencies will have the opportunity to govern the UK, and those who bet early will benefit the most.

The American story has already provided a reference: in 2024, the crypto industry poured over $200 million into congressional candidates, and after Trump's victory, the SEC changed leadership, leading to a sharp turn in crypto regulation, with the industry welcoming long-awaited policy dividends.

The British story is yet to be written.