Leave campaigner Arron Banks facing criminal investigation over Brexit referendum funding The Electoral Commission said it had grounds to believe ‘a number of criminal offences may have been committed’ during the campaign

Key Brexiteer and Leave campaigner Arron Banks is facing a criminal investigation over suspicions he committed a series of crimes during the 2016 referendum campaign.

Mr Banks, who was behind prominent Brexit campaign group Leave.EU, is facing allegations alongside another senior campaign figure, Liz Bilney.

The Electoral Commission had been investigating Mr Banks, but it announced on Thursday that the seriousness of the alleged crimes warranted their decision to hand it over to the National Crime Agency (NCA).

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It said there were reasonable grounds to suspect that businessman Mr Banks was not the “true source” millions of pounds worth of loans to the unofficial campaign group.

Mr Banks has previously denied any wrongdoing and he said that he is “confident that a full and frank investigation will finally put an end to the ludicrous allegations levelled against me and my colleagues”.

In a statement, the Electoral Commission said: “Following its investigation into funding for the 2016 EU referendum, the Electoral Commission has referred: Better for the Country, the organisation that ran the Leave.EU referendum campaign; Arron Banks; Leave.EU; Elizabeth Bilney; and other associated companies and individuals.

Criminal investigation

“The National Crime Agency has now launched a criminal investigation.”

The commission said its investigation had led it to suspect that large sums of money given to the campaign had come “from impermissible sources”.

It said the probe focused on £2m sum of money which was reportedly loaned to Better for the Country by Mr Banks and his companies, as well as £6m from Mr Banks which was reported to have been given to the Better for the Country via Leave.EU – and ultimately intended for Leave.EU’s referendum spending.

Better for the Country was the company he used to finance the Leave.EU campaign.

Of this money, “£2.9m was used to fund referendum spending on behalf of Leave.EU and donations to other campaign groups during the EU referendum,” the statement said.

A number of criminal offences may have been committed

It went on to allege that, in fact, Mr Banks was “not the true source of the £8m loans” and the money instead came from “Rock Holdings Limited, which is incorporated in the Isle of Man”.

The statement said it believed that Mr Banks and Ms Bilney “concealed the true details of these financial transactions” and that “a number of criminal offences may have been committed”.

Bob Posner, the Electoral Commission’s director of political finance and regulation and legal counsel, said the the claims were “significant” because at least £2.9m of the money referred to was money was “used to fund referendum spending and donations during the regulated period of the EU referendum” – when funding restrictions are in place.

“The financial transactions we have investigated include companies incorporated in Gibraltar and the Isle of Man. These jurisdictions are beyond the reach of the Electoral Commission for the purpose of obtaining information for use in criminal investigations or proceedings,” he said.

The NCA said that which electoral law offences “would not routinely fall within [our] remit, the nature of the necessary inquiries and the potential for offences to have been committed other than under electoral law lead us to consider an NCA investigation appropriate in this instance”.

It added that it was a live investigation so it could not elaborate further.