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The rightwing celebration Reform UK accepted a political donation from disgraced financier Crispin Odey two months after he was accused of sexual misconduct.
A Financial Times investigation in June reported claims from 13 ladies towards Odey over alleged sexual misconduct carried out over many years. The financier, who strenuously denies the allegations, was ejected from the eponymous Odey Asset Management.
The Electoral Commission on Thursday printed up to date information exhibiting that Reform UK accepted £10,000 from Odey in August 2023, by which level an extra six ladies had come ahead with claims of sexual misconduct. Odey didn’t reply to a request for remark concerning these extra allegations.
The donation was initially filed by Reform UK as being made by the Independent Investment Management Initiative, an trade think-tank.
Richard Tice, chief of the celebration, confirmed the donation had been obtained from Odey. He stated the donation was logged incorrectly due to a “simple clerical error” and was “corrected as soon as it was spotted”.
Asked whether or not the celebration was conscious of claims towards Odey when it accepted the donation, Tice stated he didn’t “read the FT every day of the week. It’s a trendy lefty newspaper”.
“We make our judgments on what we think is correct. Crispin Odey is on the electoral roll and he has not been found guilty of anything as far as I’m aware,” Tice informed the FT. “In the UK we have the simple principle of innocent until proven guilty.”
Odey was a director of IIMI between June 2010 and December 2012, in keeping with firm filings.
The IIMI stated: “The IIMI is a not-for-profit organisation, has never made any political donations, nor does it intend to do so. The IIMI has worked with thousands of individuals at member firms since its establishment in 2010.”
Reform UK was based by arch-Brexiter Nigel Farage, who stays honorary president and a majority shareholder. It is at the moment polling at about 10 per cent, in keeping with the FT’s normal election ballot tracker.
Odey’s donation to Reform UK was first revealed by investigative web site DeSmog.
Odey and his eponymous hedge fund donated about £870,000 to pro-Brexit teams in 2016. He additionally donated £422,000 to rightwing political events together with the Conservatives and Ukip between 2009 and 2019, in addition to £10,000 to former prime minister Boris Johnson in 2019.
Odey Asset Management introduced in October that it will shut down, 5 months after allegations had been made towards its founder, and following a spate of shopper withdrawals that plunged the hedge fund right into a disaster.
Several banks, together with JPMorgan Chase, additionally reduce ties from the hedge fund following the FT’s investigation.
The Electoral Commission stated it printed donation particulars as “originally reported” and the entry was “amended on our database when the party informed us that it had provided inaccurate donor information”.
Crispin Odey has been contacted for remark.
Additional reporting by Louis Ashworth
https://www.ft.com/content/6660f1ec-ff38-4904-9cf6-f99f1d61d2c9
