This is on brand for Farage and Reform. Whether it’s taking Russian bribes, soliciting murky crypto donations or associating with convicted money launderers, and now banking millions from someone who a US court found was helping criminals clean their dirty money. They should hand back every penny.
But the Telegraph handed him a column where he presents himself as a plucky truth-teller who "cannot cope with lying politicians". This is the same man who admitted in court to falsifying records and looking the other way while criminals used his platform. You couldn't make it up.
So when Reform accepts £4 million from this man, are they sure of where this money actually coming from? A man convicted of running a platform deliberately designed to hide the origins of money is now pouring cash into British politics. Red flag, red flag, red flag.
It gets worse. Delo personally doctored his own company's records to hide the fact that a customer was breaking the rules. He also kept serving customers in Iran - a country under international sanctions. He was fined $10 million and could have gone to prison for five years.
His platform was officially described in court as "in effect a money laundering platform". When Delo was told it was being used to launder the proceeds of a hack, he did nothing. No reports filed. No action taken. In six years, his company never once flagged suspicious activity to authorities.
Ben Delo isn't just a "billionaire expat" with a soft spot for Farage. In 2022 he was found guilty of serious criminal charges in the United States. American prosecutors said he deliberately built a dodgy crypto platform designed to help people hide dirty money. He admitted as much in court.
The Telegraph just gave a convicted criminal a two-page spread to explain why he's pumping £4 million into Reform UK. They tucked his criminal record away in the small print. So as a former financial crime specialist I’ll do their job for them👇
A very good thread about journalists and AI, much of which also applies to writers of nonfiction books. We are being told, with increasing frequency and stridency, that we "just don't get" how AI can help us, by people who are manifestly not interested in helping us. Know your enemy. Hold the line.
David Simon said it best
"all writers use AI" nope, get the entire fuck out of here with that
Is it any wonder our media ecosystem is such a mess? The guy in charge of the supposedly impartial watchdog is slagging off the BBC to the right wing Telegraph - which is hostile to the BBC - & defending the fact his organisation has let GB News act share misinformation and constantly promote Reform
Getting shown up in the arena of elite impunity by *the British monarchy* is an incredible “America at 250!” achievement
Two weeks ago, Peter Mandelson told us he had no recollection of planning to buy a £2m apartment in Rio via a Panama holding company and a Brazilian company.
Yesterday we found notarised incorporation documents for the Brazilian company, with Mr Mandelson's signature.
"Meta’s internal memo said the political tumult in the United States was good timing for the feature’s release. “We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns,” according to the document from Meta’s Reality Labs, which works on hardware including smart glasses."
the most on-brand quote a meta staffer may have ever uttered
Cartoon. Person says to other person „We invented a robot that answers questions.“, adding, „we just have to feed it 10 baby giraffes a day“. The other person asks „But it answers the questions correctly?“ Person responds „Oh my goodness, no. No no no no no.“ By Aram J. French Appropriated due to missing alt text
#OtD 9 Feb 2007 Alejandro Finisterre, anarchist poet and inventor of the Spanish table football (foosball) died in Zamora, Spain. He invented the game following injury during the Spanish Civil War so injured children could still play football workingclasshistory.com/2018/07/29/s...
"Eighty-two years after his execution by the Gestapo on June 16, 1944, the Jewish historian and resistance fighter Marc Bloch will be inducted into the Pantheon on June 23... His family requested that 'the far right, in all its forms, be excluded from any participation in the ceremony.'"
That’s Brett Ratner there on the right.
From the same newspaper that published “did feminism fuck up the work place?”, we now have “did feminism fuck up sex?”
The NYT really is desperate to cater to conservative audiences and it’s just getting more obvious and embarrassing.
The colonial imperialist west shouldn’t be forgiven for a lot of things, and the crimes against Haiti and her people are one of them.
The Board of Governors decided, unilaterally, that no published textbook in the field of sociology could be used in compliance with the law for an Intro to Sociology class. None. Victor: There's not a single existing textbook on the market that could be used that would qualify under state law? Zachary: Correct. Victor: I'm sorry, that's kind of funny. Like, the absurdity of not a single sociology textbook getting past the censors. I mean, it makes me kind of proud of our colleagues, but...
I do want to shout-out my fellow sociologists, who have collectively created a discipline so woke that not a single one of our introductory textbooks can make it past Florida's censors.
Great work everyone.
It has been revealed that our chief reporter, @john-mcevoy.bsky.social, was among journalists investigated by a PR firm paid by Labour Together.
Labour Together was then managed by Josh Simons. Simons is now Cabinet Office minister.
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/exclusive-...
What a tremendous loss.
If you're interested in learning more about Chip's legacy as a right-watcher (well before right watching became a cottage industry), check out this brief reflection.
www.academia.edu/95027577/Age...
You see what is going on in the US, and the far right in Europe saying “this is specifically what we’d like to do here”, and the US govt saying “this is specifically what we want to make happen there”, and our approach to national security is to treat this as an inconvenient distraction.
The lack of concern given to US influence over British politics compared to say Russian or Chinese, when the current US govt and associated business elites are overtly committed to undermining liberal democracy in Western Europe *and* have the leverage to do just that, is incredibly alarming.
So, are they saying they don't approve what the President of the United States puts out on Truth Social, his preferred megaphone to the world -- that he's used to announce peace deals, tariffs, and military ops?
A staffer can post something there without the President or top officials approving it?
This is massive. A credit to Democracy For Sale for their investigation.
Among the batch of newly released emails from Jeffrey Epstein: Epstein telling Peter Thiel he would “gladly share…expenses for the Gawker suit.”
This was sent the day after @rmac.bsky.social and @mattdrange.bsky.social reported in Forbes that Thiel was behind the lawsuit that would bankrupt Gawker
The same argument that says, “It’s not right that fit and healthy people pay for the expensive treatment of cancer patients on the NHS.”
You either believe in the state properly resourcing its institutions, or you don’t.
An Injury To All: The Unmaking of the British Working Class will be published by Verso in October!
Today I submitted responses to last comments from my editor and worked on the blurb. It's getting closer and closer!