One man has been propelled into the spotlight after his record-breaking donation to Reform UK of £36m, but who really is Ben Delo?
Ben Delo is making headlines becasue, his donation, which was first reported by The Telegraph, is the largest ever donation to be given to a party in British history.
However, while Delo is not exactly a household name, he has been in the news before, notably for a conviction in the US.
In 2022, Delo was convicted in the US for failing to implement adequate anti-money laundering controls in his cryptocurrency business BitMEX, although he has since been pardoned by Trump.
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The 42-year-old moved back to the UK from Hong Kong and has since dwarfed the £15m donation Reform previously received from Christopher Harborne.
It had been suggested that Delo could have been caught out by the £100,000 donor cap implemented in March this year, which can only be avoided if someone has been on the UK domestic electoral register for at least 12 months.
However, as per The Guardian, Reform appear confident that this will not be an issue after he gave £4m at the start of September.
He has given Reform £8m since the start of the year, with this total now climbing to £44m.
Who is Ben Delo?
Ben Peter Delo is a 42-year-old crypto billionaire born in Sheffield in the UK.
He is a self-described entrepreneur and philanthropist who held an interest in coding and maths from a young age, going on to graduate from Oxford University in 2005.
Delo started out with a summer internship at IBM where he was subsequently hired as a software engineer.
He went on to develop automated trading systems for hedge funds and banks such as J.P. Morgan.
Delo moved to Hong Kong where he worked for J.P. Morgan and later set up BitMEX, a cryptocurrency trading platform, with Arthur Hayes and Sam Reed.
At its peak, BitMEX was valued at around £2.66bn, with Delo being credited with inventing the ‘perpetual swap’ – a type of financial derivative contract that lets you speculate on an asset’s price without an expiration date.
However, BitMEX is set to shut down on 23 September.
While it did not give a reason for the closure, it would not have been helped by the regulatory charges it has faced in the past.
Delo was charged in 2020, along with three others, with not implementing an adequate anti-money laundering programme for BitMEX.
He pleaded not guilty after travelling to the United States and surrendered himself to authorities in New York, although was allowed to return to the UK.
Delo later pleaded guilty to the charge of not implementing an adequate anti-money laundering programme in 2022, paying a $10m fine and receiving 30 months’ probation before being pardoned by Trump last year.
Delo is a self-described philanphropist, as per his LinkedIn profile, and has given millions away as part of The Giving Pledge campaign.
It would seem now, however, that he has found a new pot to throw money at – Reform UK.
In a feature article written for The Telegraph, Delo said: “I love my country – that’s why I want a level democratic playing field and a party that’s ready to govern.”
He took aim at the Tories and Labour who have “occupied the commanding heights of British politics for a combined total of more than 300 years,” saying the reason it has been hard to challenge them is due to their economic monopoly.
He said he is giving £1m a month until the expected 2029 general election, front-loaded as a £36m gift, to help Reform “prepare for government” and “spend less time trying to raise funds to compete on equal terms.”
In all fairness, Reform don’t seem to be struggling on that front.
Largest one-off donations in UK political history
With his £36m donation to Reform UK, Delo has smashed the previous record which was a £10m donation from John Sainsbury to the Conservative Party.
The top 10 are as follows:
- Ben Delo — £36 million to Reform UK (2026)
- John Sainsbury — £10 million to the Conservative Party (2023)
- Christopher Harborne — £9 million to Reform UK (2025)
- David Sainsbury — £8 million to the Liberal Democrats (2019)
- Frank Hester — £5 million to the Conservative Party.
- Mohamed Mansour — £5 million to the Conservative Party
- David Sainsbury — £3 million to the Labour Party
- Christopher Harborne — £3 million to Reform UK (2026)
- Ben Delo — £4 million to Reform UK (2026)
- Gary Lubner — £3 million to the Labour Party