Until Saturday night, little was known about the relationship between Nigel Farage and convicted criminal George Cottrell.

Now, the 32-year-old aristocrat is at the centre of the latest controversy surrounding the Reform UK leader, after Farage reportedly failed to declare benefits provided by the man known as “Posh George”.

The Sunday Times reports that Cottrell supplied support, external including security and social media staff who worked on Farage’s online content in the year before he became an MP.

Under parliamentary rules, new members must declare financial interests and “registrable benefits” received in the 12 months before their election.

Reform says no rules have been broken; its Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick told the BBC that the support did not need to be registered since it was provided in a “purely personal capacity” prior to Farage’s election.

Who is Cottrell, the long-time Farage ally and reported cryptocurrency entrepreneur once convicted of fraud in the US?

It is “difficult” to pin down precisely who Cottrell is, Gabriel Pogrund, who led the Sunday Times team behind the investigation, tells the BBC’s Newscast.

Born in Gloucester in 1993, Cottrell is the son of the Honourable Fiona Cottrell, the paper reports, an aristocrat said to have “briefly dated” then-Prince Charles, the future king. Cottrell’s grandfather, the third Baron Manton, inherited a “family soap empire”.

The future Farage ally reportedly left education without A-levels after being expelled from Malvern College, an independent school in Worcestershire, due to a “gambling addiction”. He is alleged to have once walked into a bookies with tens of thousands of pounds in cash.

He went on to become a “fixer-cum-financier to the ultra-rich in Mayfair”, according to the report, and his wealth now “derives from crypto”.

It is not clear precisely when he became close with Farage, but at the age of 22, he was made Ukip’s head of fundraising – a reward for volunteering for Farage in a 2015 Essex by-election.

The two of them quickly became “very close”, says Pogrund. “George is seen as the Farage whisperer. He knows when Nigel needs a cigarette, he knows when Nigel wants a beer, he knows when Nigel wants a moment’s peace.

“He’s there to pull the chair from under the table when he’s about to sit down,” Pogrund said of this period.

This “profound friendship” saw Cottrell at Farage’s side on the day of the Brexit referendum in June 2016.

A month later, Cottrell was arrested in the US as he and Farage were preparing to return to the UK after the Republican National Convention, where Farage had spoken at a rally in support of Donald Trump.

Cottrell had been caught agreeing to launder money for undercover agents posing as drug traffickers in an FBI sting operation.

Farage said at the time that he was surprised by what had happened and had “never had any suspicions” about Cottrell. He said he could not be held responsible for “what everyone around me does”.

Cottrell faced 20 years in jail for 21 counts related to money laundering, fraud, blackmail and extortion.

But he eventually brokered a plea deal, admitted guilt to a charge of wire fraud and ended up serving just eight months in prison.

In the plea bargain, Cottrell said: “I falsely claimed that I would launder the criminal proceeds through my bank accounts for a fee.”

He claimed that rather than launder the money, he and an associate planned on keeping it themselves.

Upon his release, Cottrell moved back to the UK and dated Georgia Toffolo, reality TV star and winner of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here.

He then moved to Montenegro where the Sunday Times reports he became a “key player” in Tether.bet, an online bookmaker and casino offering users large stakes on sports and politics in cash or cryptocurrency.

This included Tether, a digital currency part owned by Christopher Harborne, a billionaire who gave Farage a £5m gift in early 2024.

The Parliamentary Standards Commissioner is currently investigating whether Farage broke the rules over that gift.

Farage has said Harborne gave him the money to pay for his personal security, adding that the gift was “purely private” and “wasn’t political in any sense at all”.

The Sunday Times reports that in 2023, Cottrell put Farage in contact with Jack Anderton, a 25-year-old right-wing political activist from Liverpool, to help run his social media operation, particularly on TikTok – where Farage’s engagement surged.

It reports that Cottrell paid Anderton a salary equivalent to around £55,000 a year.

Later that year, Cottrell helped negotiate a £1.5 million fee for Farage to appear on I’m a Celebrity…, the newspaper reports, and started providing Farage with security, primarily composed of elite former soldiers, and drivers.

After Farage announced that he would stand as a Reform UK candidate in the 2024 general election and became party leader, he started travelling the country – often with Cottrell by his side.

One such occasion was Farage’s campaign launch in Clacton, Essex, where a milkshake was thrown over him.

Around this time, the Sunday Times reports that Cottrell began renting a residential property near Buckingham Palace, for which he is understood to be paying tens of thousands of pounds per month, and where Farage has been allowed to stay.

On 4 July 2024, Farage was elected as the MP for Clacton.

He then registered a £9,253 trip to Belgium in April 2024 donated by Cottrell, and later added a £15,276 donation from Cottrell for a US domestic flight he provided in December 2024.

No other support from Cottrell is listed in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.

Cottrell is now reportedly lobbying the US president for a pardon. He also recently co-authored a book, How to Launder Money, which claims to be a guide for law enforcement, prosecutors and policymakers.

A spokesman for Farage said: “It comes as no surprise that the Sunday Times has chosen to publish this baseless and contrived story, covering a period of time when Nigel Farage was not even an active politician let alone an elected one, given that the newspaper backed the Labour Party at the last general election.

“Contrary to the story’s tone, no parliamentary rules have been broken.”