LONDON — The National Crime Agency has launched a criminal investigation into the funding of one of the organizations which campaigned for Britain to leave the European Union.
The Electoral Commission said today it had referred Better for the Country, the organization which ran the Leave.EU referendum campaign, and Leave.EU founder and major UK Independence Party donor Arron Banks, to the National Crime Agency, which has launched a criminal investigation.
The Commission said in a statement it had "reasonable grounds to suspect" Banks had not been the true source of £8 million loans made to Better for the Country and that the loans involved a "non-qualifying or impermissible company" Rock Holdings Limited, which is incorporated in the Isle of Man. Under U.K. law, loans and donations for political campaigning cannot come from overseas.
Electoral Commission Director of Political Finance and Regulation and Legal Counsel Bob Posner said its investigation suggested criminal offenses had been committed which fell beyond the remit of the Electoral Commission and evidence had been handed to the National Crime Agency to allow it to investigate and take any appropriate law enforcement action.
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