Montenegro, the tiny Adriatic nation best known for its stunning coastline and Game of Thrones filming locations, has quietly become something else entirely: a landing pad for associates of Nigel Farage with deep ties to the cryptocurrency world.
At the center of the story is George Cottrell, a Farage associate who was convicted of wire fraud in the US in 2017. After his conviction, Cottrell relocated to Tivat, a coastal town in Montenegro, where he has reportedly built connections to both the crypto sector and local gambling operations.
The Montenegro-Reform UK money trail
An investigation by openDemocracy revealed that company registrations at shared addresses in Montenegro link several key figures aligned with Farage’s Reform UK party. Billionaire donor Christopher Harborne has made substantial donations totaling over £15M to Reform UK, according to the investigation. Harborne’s connections to Cottrell add another thread to an already tangled web of political money and crypto interests operating out of the Balkans.
Farage himself invested £215,000 in Stack BTC, a bitcoin treasury firm, and has actively promoted the company. Stack BTC has seen a 15% drop in asset value recently.
