The National Crime Agency (NCA) has begun an investigation into Arron Banks, co-founder of Leave.EU, over electoral offences during the EU referendum campaign.
The NCA announced that inquiries into Arron banks, Liz Bilney, and other senior officials from the Leave.EU organisation, have begun following a referral from the Electoral Commission.
Arron Banks is one of the largest donors in UK political history and heavily funded Better for the Country (BFTC) which campaigned for Brexit during the referendum in 2016.
The claims made by the Electoral Commission relate specifically to around £8m lent and donated to BFTC to help with Leave.EU, which the organisation ran, in order to politically back the leave campaign. The suspicion is that Mr. Banks and his insurance companies are not the original sources of the cash.
The announcement on the NCA website states “Our investigation relates to suspected electoral law offences”.
In response to the opening of this investigation, Mr. Banks gave a statement, here quoted from the BBC:
“There is no evidence of any wrongdoing from the companies I own. I am a UK taxpayer and I have never received any foreign donations. The Electoral Commission has produced no evidence to the contrary”
The businessman has also tweeted several times over the course of the day in response to the allegations.
