The enigma at the heart of the election campaign of the leader of the Reform Party of the United Kingdom, Nigel Farage: why a thirty-year-old businessman, self-confessed gambler and convicted fraudster flew from a glamorous Balkan resort to be his unpaid assistant, writes the British newspaper "The Guardian".
George Cottrell was by Farage's side when the Reform UK leader was pelted with milkshakes on the campaign trail in Clacton, and on a private helicopter flight with him from Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, to London.
Cottrell was there in a London hotel, his ear glued to the phone, while Farage hosted a press conference.
He also appeared in Merthir Tydfil to launch the party's manifesto in Wales.
The Reform Party says Cottrell is just one of many party volunteers on the campaign trail, but his extravagant lifestyle and past controversies raise some tricky questions for Farage.
Those who followed the election campaign in Clacton, the Essex seaside town from which Farage launched his eighth bid to become an MP, described Cottrell as an integral part of the operation - often physically close to the leader and his two bodyguards, as shown in the Channel 4 footage. at which the main group leaves the campaign headquarters.
One photo from earlier in the campaign shows Cottrell in a beer garden in Clacton with Farage.
Both men are in similar poses: smoking and talking on the phone, a few meters apart.
The British locations are a far cry from Cottrell's usual lifestyle. He is said to have driven a £300.000 Lamborghini, stayed in an £XNUMXm townhouse when in London and flown friends from Westminster, including Farage, to his home in Montenegro on a private jet from London's Biggin Hill Airport.
Cottrell, who was born in Britain, was arrested in July 2016 after the Republican Party convention in the United States of America (US). He was convicted in 2017 and spent eight months in prison after being accused of offering money laundering services on the "dark web". He moved to Montenegro in 2017, after he was released from prison.
He served time for one count of wire fraud after 20 other charges were dismissed as part of a plea deal. He is now a household name in the luxury seaside resort of Porto Montenegro, where he mostly lives, with its glittering marina, a haven for the super-rich with glittering mega-yachts, luxury restaurants and designer stores such as Dior and Rolex.
Sources told the Guardian that he entertained friends in a villa during a trip to Montenegro, with a separate bedroom favored by Farage, although he reportedly owns a more modest apartment at the five-star Regent Porto Montenegro hotel.
Cottrell's time in Montenegro was not without controversy. Last month he reportedly lost €20m (£16m) in a poker game, sparking a public spat with his ex-girlfriend Anđela Vukadinović, the current Miss Montenegro.
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In an interview with the Guardian in Montenegro two weeks ago, Vukadinović (23) said that Cottrell and Faraž were "very close".
"(George) respects him so much. He always talks about him like Nigel is his No. 1. So it's all about Nigel. I mean before, it wasn't so much, like he mentioned him every day, but it was fine with me But for the last three, four months, she keeps mentioning him," said Vukadinović, a candidate for Miss World.
Cottrell is also known for his connections to the political scene of Montenegro, including the country's current Prime Minister Milojko Spajić and his Europe Now Movement (PES).
Since Spajić was on the "edge of power" last year, a search and a warrant were requested against Kotrel due to accusations that he illegally financed the party.
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His lawyers said the presiding judge rejected the request as baseless and "part of a political game" and described the episode as part of a political disinformation campaign because of Cottrell's ties to the politician.
Vukadinović said that Cottrell was close to Spajić, whom she had previously met in Porto Montenegro, but that they parted ways this year.
"I don't know why, what happened there. (George) doesn't want to talk about it – I've asked him several times, which is strange to me," she said.
Cottrel's business in Montenegro is registered as a company "Private Family Office", founded under the name "George Co".
The "Guardian" also reports the "Vijesta" writing that Cottrell used the same name in his passport when he flew on a private plane last summer.
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Cottrell's lawyers said he had official permission to use the shortened name for reasons related to his personal safety.
"Posh George"
Cottrell, a Gloucester-born aristocrat, was educated privately on the luxury Caribbean island of Mustique and then at Malvern College in Worcestershire.
Nicknamed "Posh George" by Brexit campaign donor Aaron Banks, Cottrell previously volunteered for Farage in 2016, aged 22, after being introduced by his aristocratic uncle Lord Hesketh, the former treasurer of the Reform Party. of the UKIP party, according to Banks' memoirs.
He was with Farage on the night of the Brexit referendum when he sensed a gambling opportunity.
"At 22pm I couldn't believe I was still getting 00/9 (for a majority vote to leave the EU)," he later told the Telegraph newspaper.
"We were in the campaign office and I was following all the major stock indexes, the dollar and pound markets. When it got to three in the morning, I was getting my managers out of bed to get me another 50k here, another 50k there, to ' shorted' sterling. I just couldn't help it."
Cottrell claimed to have won a six-figure sum from "shortening" the pound, but said he promptly "lost most of the next day" betting on the horses.
Later that year, Farage was present when Cottrell was arrested on money laundering charges in the US as they prepared to return to Britain after the Republican convention.
Banks' memoir recalls that Cottrell was initially detained on the way out and thought it was because he "came from a very wealthy family and routinely carried thousands of pounds".
After he was arrested, Banks wrote:
"Nasty shock today when Nigel received criminal charges for 'Posh George'. Not pretty. He has been charged with 21 counts of crimes including money laundering, wire fraud and blackmail. He added that he thought Cottrell was "very young and I doubt he was caught in something over the head".
An Arizona judge sentenced Cottrell to eight months in prison after he eventually pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud as part of a plea deal that dropped the other charges.
The crime was committed in 2014, before he worked for an anti-EU party or Farage, who once described Cottrell as "like a son" to him.
In an interview with The Times in 2017, Cottrell's mother, Fiona, said reports that her son was rich enough to have a £250 million trust fund were "ridiculous, absolute rubbish".
After his release from prison, Cottrell spoke of making a living before 2016 working for offshore banks, including "facilitating and promoting aggressive tax avoidance schemes".
His lawyers said he had no access to family money, but had built up his considerable fortune working since the age of 17 - and no longer works for offshore banks in tax avoidance schemes, but has a portfolio of investments.
After his conviction in 2017, Farage appeared to distance himself from Cottrell after the verdict, saying he could not be held responsible for anything the people around him had done.
But the pair have been photographed together several times since then, once in Montenegro at a polo match in 2019, again lunching in West London in 2021 with Cottrell's ex-girlfriend Georgia Toffolo, a reality star and influencer, and again at Scott's " this year.
Vukadinovic said that Cottrell was preparing to support Farage in the last few months, but that she had no idea what his role was.
"It's something about Nigel's campaign, that's all I know because I'm not asking too much. I'm not really interested in that job. So he's over there [in the UK] full-time preparing Nigel for that I guess," she said. she.
Vukadinovic, who met Kotrel at a bar in Tivat, home to Porto Montenegro, three years ago, said she was present after he lost 20 million euros in the Triton Poker series, a high-stakes tournament held at the Maestral casino resort. with five stars in Budva on the coast of the Adriatic Sea.
She said he gambled away the money over the course of several hours in the VIP room, appearing several times to inform her. She said she left after trying to warn Cottrell, who admitted in a 2017 interview with the Telegraph that he had a gambling problem in his youth but later kicked it.
Vukadinovic, who was at the resort, said she believed Cottrell played against Chinese billionaires and celebrities.
"It was maybe five, six, seven o'clock, he was at the same table [playing poker] in the private room the whole time," she said. "He was like lose, win, lose, win. And I thought, 'this is going to be a disaster' - and it was."
He was also a regular guest at "Salon Prive", a private members' club and casino in Tivat, and he brought friends from Great Britain to the casino.
Last year, police tried to raid a casino looking for a crypto machine.
Such ATMs are used to buy and sell cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
The casino's lawyers told "Vijesti" at the time that the crypto machine was legally acquired for legitimate cryptocurrency trading.
Cottrell has repeatedly said he has no financial connection to the casino, and company records show it is owned by a Malaysian accountant from London.
Cottrell's lawyers said he was aware of reports that the crypto machine had been imported, but that he had never operated it.
A businessman in Tivat described Kotrel as a friend and client since 2017 and told how he met Faraž and Tofol through him.
He praised Cottrell, saying: "I have nothing bad to say against him. He is very kind, very kind and very kind. He is the perfect British gentleman. He is 10 out of 10."
Cottrell declined to comment officially. "The Guardian" also approached Reforma and Farage for comment.
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