Farage's bank accounts closed

[NotAllThere]

After it was revealed in parliament that Nigel Farage had received around £0.5M from RT in 2018, his bank gave him notice that they were closing his business and personal account.

He contacted the chairman of his bank and some "lackey" as he described it, declined to give reasons.

[SueEllen]

Well the bank has to comply with government sanctions.

[northernladuk]

Well the bank has to comply with government sanctions.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...criminate.html

'We do not close savings accounts based on different opinions regarding beliefs. We would only make the difficult decision to close a savings account if a customer is rude, abusive, violent or discriminates in any way, based on the specific facts and behaviour in each case.'

That article doesn't mention sanctions and just the quote above. It appears a number of other banks also have similar policies and have closed accounts as well. That said, I wouldn't have said Farage really fits in to any of the catagories mention and he did recieve a couple of grand from work awhile ago so it could be quite possible it's because of Russian money.

Article goes on and on about random closures of account so shoddy journalism in that article could be detracting from the real reason.

[SueEllen]

I actually read a Sky News article -

https://news.sky.com/story/nigel-far...ation-12912144

Thing is when a bank closes your accounts due to suspected money laundering or the fact they don't like where you got some payments from, they don't tell you.

[northernladuk]

From Sky

"The truth is I've never received any money from any sources with any link to Russia," Mr Farage said.

From Daily Mail

He said it was ‘nonsense’ and ‘wholly wrong’ to suggest he received hundreds of thousands of pounds from the Russian state.

He has said he received ‘two small appearance fees’ with both ‘well under £5,000’ from Russia Today. He said this related to some work in 2015 and 2016 and insists he didn’t do any work with them in 2018 – the year Bryant claimed he received almost £550,000. He claims Mr Bryant 'abused' Parliamentary Privilege to avoid being sued for libel. The Labour MP has not repeated the same claims in public.

Mr Farage either needs to get his story straight or get some good libel lawers to have a chat to the news outlets

[AtW]

Wrong practice - plus banks share this info to block opening account elsewhere, this should be totally illegal unless they get court order allowing this to happen.

[Lance]

as a person in politics the checks that a bank carries out are more strict with more controls.

Politically exposed persons | The Law Society

The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (legislation.gov.uk)


Couldn't happen to nicer prick.
I wonder if Corbyn/Galloway have had similar treatment but haven't moaned about.

[courtg9000]

Personally, I would like the members of the banking industry who have closed his account and the others that are refusing to give him a new account. I applaud them for their actions and would hope that the rest of the banking industry follows their excellent example!

[SueEllen]

Personally, I would like the members of the banking industry who have closed his account and the others that are refusing to give him a new account. I applaud them for their actions and would hope that the rest of the banking industry follows their excellent example!

I think it is unfair he's not given a new account with payments blocked from sources the bank doesn't like.

[JustKeepSwimming]

I think it is unfair he's not given a new account with payments blocked from sources the bank doesn't like.

That would be an absolutely absurd risk for a bank to take. There is next to nothing to gain for them but huge risk that the suspect criminal might continue to criminal.