Happy new year from the SKWAWKBOX.As this blog exclusively revealed yesterday, UKIP is facing – on top of proven charges of fraud of €450,000 and a demand to pay back at least €170,000 – an EU/OLAF investigation relating to alleged fraud of over €20 million, along with the even graver matter of distributing images of child abuse.It was covered in the media just before Christmas, but seemingly not much noticed, that Nigel Farage’s former office manager and UKIP media co-ordinator – who has been held in Phoenix, Arizona since July on charges of fraud – has accepted a ‘plea bargain’ in which he would escape 20 charges of fraud and money-laundering and plead guilty on just one.George Cottrell, pictured above with his former boss, tried to sell money-laundering services to undercover US federal agents that he believed were drug-dealers.As part of his plea-agreement, he told a US court: Rather than launder any of the money, though … I intended to retain the money.Oh, well, that’s alright then.

Cottrell also admitted that he explained various ways criminal proceeds could be laundered He also, laughably, tried to blackmail the ‘drug dealers’, threatening to report them to the authorities unless they paid him around $80,000 in bitcoin – after having already ‘conned’ them out of $20,000.He has been denied bail pending sentencing, on the grounds that he is a flight risk.You can easily see how Mr Cottrell would fit in with a party that is already proven to have misappropriated 450,000 euros and is alleged to have stolen much more – and that misled millions with promises of extra cash for the NHS if the UK left the EU.And you might also wonder where he learned ‘various ways criminal proceeds could be laundered’.The SKWAWKBOX is provided free of charge but relies on the generosity of its readers.If you’re able, please click here to set up a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal.Thanks for your support!George Cottrell held for allegedly agreeing to launder money for undercover law enforcement posing as drug traffickers Cottrell arrested following trip to Republican convention in Cleveland with Nigel Farage.

Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images George Cottrell held for allegedly agreeing to launder money for undercover law enforcement posing as drug traffickers An aide to Nigel Farage is facing blackmail and money laundering charges in the United States after being arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare airport as he tried to travel back to Britain with the former Ukip leader.George Cottrell allegedly agreed to launder money for undercover agents who were posing as drug traffickers and is facing 21 counts relating to money laundering, fraud, blackmail and extortion,.An Arizona federal indictment said that in 2014 Cottrell agreed to launder their purported drug proceeds by transferring it to offshore accounts and later met them in Las Vegas, arranging for them to transfer $20,000 (£15,500) to an associate.He was arrested on 22 July at O’Hare airport as he attempted to return to the UK with Farage after they visited the Republican party convention in Cleveland.Cottrell, who is in his 20s, also tried blackmail the fake drug traffickers by threatening to report them to the police unless they paid him 130 Bitcoin, then worth around $80,000 dollars, according to the indictment.

A Ukip spokesman said: “George was an unpaid and enthusiastic volunteer for the party over the period of the referendum.safest bitcoin mining pool“We are unaware of the details of the allegations excepting that they date from a time before he was directly involved in the party.” Cottrell, who has been denied bail by a judge who said he “poses a serious risk of flight” comes from an aristocratic family.tor friendly bitcoin exchangeHis uncle is Lord Hesketh, a former hereditary peer, who worked for former prime minister Margaret Thatcher before losing his seat in the Lords in 1999 as a result of the House of Lords Act.bitcoin video tamilHe later defected to Ukip.cara dapet bitcoin gratis

Cottrell’s mother, Fiona Cottrell, is the daughter of another peer.Britain's UKIP party, widely credited as having been a major factor behind the country's decision to leave the European Union, lost its only lawmaker on Saturday when Douglas Carswell announced he was leaving the party.bitcoin coin etfCarswell, 46, defected to UKIP from the Conservative party led by then Prime Minister David Cameron in August 2014 and went on to win a by-election in the eastern seaside town of Clacton that year.bitcoin price drop february 2014"Like many of you, I switched to UKIP because I desperately wanted us to leave the EU," he said in a statement.ethereum arm"Now we can be certain that that is going to happen, I have decided that I will be leaving UKIP."bitcoin une monnaie

"I will leave UKIP amicably, cheerfully and in the knowledge that we won."He said he would remain as Member of Parliament (MP) for Clacton, as an independent, until the next general election due in 2020.bitcoin backingCarswell's announcement comes just four days before Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May formally triggers the EU divorce process, following last June's referendum vote to quit the bloc that Britain joined 44 years ago.The party's best-known politician Nigel Farage held a long-running feud with Carswell over party policies and he had previously accused Carswell of trying to split the party.The defection will raise questions within UKIP as the party hopes to capitalise on its successful campaign to leave the EU.After months of turmoil following Farage's decision to step down as leader last June, it had finally elected its former chairman Paul Nuttall as leader in November and was aiming to increase its representation in the 650-seat parliament.