Richard Tice was referred to the parliament’s standards watchdog over an undeclared loan from Nigel Farage’s aide George Cottrell.
Reform UK’s deputy leader received the loan of £78,100 from Cottrell into the account of Tisun Investments Ltd, a British company of which Tice is a director.
The transaction was made in December 2024, and originally caused bankers to raise concerns with authorities due to the fact it was being made to an MP and was coming from a convicted criminal, the Guardian reports.
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Cottrell, who was convicted of wire-fraud in the US in 2017, has previously been a campaigner and fundraiser for Nigel Farage.
Earlier this month, an investigation from the Times found that he had been funding Farage’s operations in the year before his successful election into the halls of Westminster.
Cottrell reportedly provided Farage with security staff and accommodation, with questions raised over whether these should have been declared by the former Clacton MP.
Tice has been referred to the parliament’s standards watchdog by Lisa Smart, a Liberal Democrat frontbench MP.
Smart asked the watchdog to investigate Tice for not declaring a £78,100 loan from Cottrell. Smart alleged that Tice has breached the MP’s code of conduct for failing to declare the loan as the money appears to have been given to Tice at a preferential rate.
Smart also alleged that Cottrell’s tax residency was in Montenegro at the time, which would make him an “impermissible donor.”
She wrote in a letter to commissioner Daniel Greenberg: “Mr Cottrell is not merely a private acquaintance of Mr Tice, he is an official adviser to Reform UK and Nigel Farage (demonstrated by his use of Reform UK business cards).
“It is highly implausible that the loan would have been negotiated without their party political connection, given this is the central basis of their relationship.”
However, in a post on X, Tice said the referral has already been “thrown out” in under 24 hours.
In December 2024, businessman Christopher Cottrell paid £78,100 into Richard Tice’s investment company, Tisun Investments, shortly before Tice transferred around £92,000 towards a Dubai property purchase.
The following month, Tice donated £613,000 to Reform UK via Tisun before receiving what he described as a £655,000 overpayment linked to the property.
Tisun later repaid £80,000 to Cottrell, but the loan does not appear to have been declared in company or parliamentary records.
Tice is understood to have paid back £1,900 more than he borrowed from Cottrell. But, given factors such as commercial rates of interest and the difficult in securing a loan of this size, it appears to have been repaid on terms that were favourable to Tice.
Smart wrote in her letter: “Transparency on these financial arrangements, and an investigation into Mr Tice, are essential for public trust. We cannot allow the rules that protect our democracy from corruption and sleaze to be disregarded by senior politicians – including those from Reform UK.”
Tice said in a statement to the Guardian: Tice said: “The lovely summer heat may be getting to this Lib Dem MP. She is referring to a corporate loan to one of my companies, which are not declarable. I have a number of corporate loans in my companies. None of them are declarable.
“They are to do with my property business activities, not to do with politics. She seems to be confusing corporate loans with MP donations. The shareholdings and directorships are fully declared as required.”