Jailbird | Posh George: The criminal behind Farage Ep.2

It's the afternoon of the 23rd of June 2016, a Nigel Farage is pacing nervously. Outside the Red brick building in Westminster, the his party, you keep, calls home, the British people are heading to the polls to cast their vote in a referendum. Brexit. Today is the day, decision day. Will the British electorate vote to remain a member of the European Union or leave the block in today's defining referendum? Farage's entire career has been building to this moment. This is the referendum that no one thought was going to happen. It's the referendum that the Prime Minister hoped he would never have to deliver. And upon a time, the Prime Minister had accused him of leading a rabble of fruitcapes, loonies and closet racists. David Cameron is not so sure for today. After a blur of battle buses and media scrums and debates last in months, the vote is on a knife edge. Now there's nothing more Farage can do, nothing but wait to nervously shuffle back and forth. And so, Farage's chief of staff, his closest advisor, pipes up with an idea. He reckons they need what they call a "hfl" - a proper fucking lunch. This is George Kotrel, known universally as "Post George", then just 22. He hasn't known Nigel Frash for long, but he seems to understand him better than anyone. Along with the millionaire donut Iron Banks, they head to a restaurant to short walk from Harrods in Night's Bridge, but they can be themselves, surrounded by fresh flowers, crisp tablecloths and lobster linguine. On roughly the third bottle of keyanti, the mood picks up, and the referendum results start to trickle in. The total number of votes cast in favour of leave was 82,000. To sum it up, the news that early constituencies strongly support leave isn't just politically exciting, it's a money-making opportunity. George heads back to the campaign office, where he opened his laptop to track the currency markets. Despite it being the very thing he campaigned for, George knows if the country votes to leave the value of the pound will plummet. He decides to make the most of it, doing what's known as "shorting the currency" by selling pounds for dollars and buying them back for less, pocketing the difference. By the time the result was declared, George Kochhall says he has made a six-figure sum. He calls the evening "the best night of my life". The next day he claims he bets most of his winnings on a horse and ends up with nothing. George later tells their story to a newspaper with an heir of "who cares" as though the loss doesn't matter. After all, posth George is in forages in a circle. He's been given a role and a front seat to history at a remarkably unaged, perhaps now nothing can touch him. I'm Gabriel Pogrand. I run the Insight Investigation's team at the Sunday Times, and together with my colleagues Vinicia Mingus and Manu Madelo, we spent the last few months trying to understand just how a convicted foster, with no official party role, has worked his way into the heart of British politics, standing by the man who could win the next election. From the times and Sunday times, this is posth George, the criminal behind forage. Episode 2. Jailbird It's hard to remember these days just how much of a shock the Brexit vote was. At the crack of dawn on the 24th of June, Nigel Farage headed down to Westminster to bask in the victory. As the camera pans out, you can just about spot George Cottrell on the lawn outside Parliament, beautifully applauding a couple of rows back. It had been a dramatic and divisive campaign which smashed perceived norms. Non-morsay then forage is posted depicting a queue of Syrian refugees near the courage to Slovenia border, the caption "breaking point". Farage had reveled in the controversy. He sensed beneath it that his message might be cutting through, and now he stood vindicated, the face of a new kind of insurgent politics, not just in Britain, but around the world. It is the establishment, it is the wealthy, it is the multinational, it is the big banks, it is those whose lives have really done rather well in the last few years, and were support for remaining, and against it it's the beef. Farage and several other self-styled, bad boys of Brexit were quickly invited stateside where one Donald Trump was on the campaign trail. "Our country needs, our country needs a truly great leader." Less than a month after the EU referendum, Farage lands in Cleveland, Ohio with George Cottrell. How'd on his back, you can see posth George guiding Nigel through the crowd as journalists ask about the rise in anti-establishment politics. "And a lot of people who have never voted in their lives, literally returning up at polling states and saying what do we do, how do we vote, and that's because we inspired them." Farage is relishing being on the global stage. He and posth George are robbing shots with the people who will seem being the most powerful in the world. But on the way home, they stop in Chicago, and that's the plain door cranks open at their airport. Wait, he run the gangway is a group of armed officers. In front of Nigel Farage, posth George is handcuffed and hauled away. He appears in court the following day in shackles and an orange jump seed. "So, I've finally got these court documents in front of me." While George later claimed he had no idea what his arrest was about, in the inside office, my colleague Venetia Mingus tracked down the pages which tell the full story. "It really sets out in quite a lot of detail over 100 pages of what actually happened." "The amount of information as you say Venetia has a hell of a lot of stuff. I think the only bit information that you can't see is this financial affidavit illustrating his finances, but everything else is there and you can see they've cast the net incredibly wide. He was facing a ridiculous array of charges at the time, wasn't he? Yeah, I mean, he was facing 21 counts, including conspiracy to commit money laundering, wire fraud, mail fraud, blackmail and extortion. I mean, the penalty would have been up to 20 years for each of these charges. So, posth George at this point in his early 20s is facing potentially life in prison." The story within these pages starts in 2014 and it starts on the Dark Web. On an application called Tor. Tor routes internet traffic randomly through thousands of relays across the world, making it much harder to trace a user's activity or location. It is totally legal and can be used by journalists to speak to anonymous sources. "But you can also find those who like to conduct their activity without being identified for the wrong reasons. Hackers, Peterfiles, drug dealers." And in March 2014, the court documents show someone calling themselves banker, put up an advert offering to advise people on how to launch their money. That advert was spotted by US agents who decided to reply, claiming they were drug traffickers. Could banker help them launder 50 to $150,000 a month with their all-gotten gains? "Sure," banker agreed, "for a fee." And he suggested the undercover agents speak to an associate of his, Bill. Bill and the undercover agent started chasting through an encrypted messaging platform called CryptoCat. Bill was sure he could launder the drug money, he said, with complete anonymity and security. He set out different ways of doing it, how to transfer large amounts of drug money into offshore accounts without having to report it. How to move that money back into the US disguised as legitimate business income. even. said he had banking contacts who could help. And so they're ready to meet, in plain sight, under the bright humming lights of Las Vegas, for a high stakes negotiation. It's April 2014 when the agents wait in their hotel suite for Bill. I imagine it feels a bit like waiting to meet a sore for the first time. I know how nerve-wracking that can be, wondering if they'll show what they'll be like will they actually be the real deal. And eventually there is a knock on the door. And who do they find? A then 20-year-old by the name of George Cottrell. They're surprised at how young he is. George and the officers still pretending to be drug dealers go to dinner. The agents are impressed. Post George they find really he knows his stuff about US government procedures and anti-money laundering laws. His education in the grey zone of London banking shines through. Afterwards Bill, or we should say George, keeps the conversation going online. And on the 9th of June he asked them to send $20,000 of supposed drug money to an associate in Colorado. That contact George claims will convert the cash into a digital cryptocurrency Bitcoin and send it to him before he launches the money and returns it. It's a test transaction. Proof of concept before they go into business together. The agent send the money, but the $20,000 is never returned. Instead around a week later, the documents claim George Cottrell demanded Bitcoin worth about $80,000. Threatening that if he didn't receive it, he'd report the very drug dealers he previously offered to London money for. Of course George doesn't know the dealers he's threatening to expose are really undercover federal agents. They're silence for two years. Until July 2016, when Post George steps off the plane in Chicago and is handcuffed in front of a shocked Nigel Farage. George pleaded not guilty to all 21 charges of fraud, blackmail and extortion. But he's refused bail. The American court considers him a flight risk. Especially because it discovers Post George recently changed his name. It's still George Cottrell, but he's changed his spelling, dropping a T and an L from his surname, when usually there are two of each. He claims he's done so, but he wants to distance himself from UK politics. The judge considers it evidence of deception. Stuck in prison the way it entrialed, Post George briefly shares a cell with the murderer. Unable to stop himself gambling, a habit George has had since school, he apparently runs up a poker debt with the boss of an Eastern European gang. He also meets federal agents and provides them with additional information about the scheme he was involved in. And then he signs a deal. On December the 19th, 2016, George Cottrell changes his plea to guilty. All rise. United States District Court for the risk of Arizona is now in session. The Honourable Dianj, meet you up for sighting. Please be seated. This is case number 016879, United States of America versus George Cottrell, unfertundably hearing. In return for guilty plea on one count of wire fraud, it's been agreed the other 20 charges against Post George will be dropped, including the accusations of blackmail and extortion. Now please state your true and complete name. George Cottrell. And that is pronounced Cottrell? Yes, it's written. Now I need you to tell me, as best you can, in your own words, what you did that caused you to be charged with this crime that you're pleading guilty to today. I'm not guilty. I'll just enter a scheme or act forward. The tape is not the clearest, but George says I knowingly participated in a scheme for financial fraud. And then he rattles off the definition of wire fraud, not mentioning many specifics until the judge picks him up on it. I need you to tell me as best you can what you did that meets those particular elements. So for example, is it your statement then that you, through the internet, enticed or told people of ways that criminal proceeds could be laundered? I'm just going to. And do you agree with this example that, for example, you made statements or described ways that individuals could perhaps disguise money. And that includes disguising proceeds that are legitimate business income for tax purposes. What did you intend to do with this money? Keep a Porsche in it. He says it being the money. Because George, in his plea bargain, plainly never intended to go ahead with the money laundering scheme he proposed. Instead, he told the court, they were always going to steal the $20,000. And you did all of this through the internet? That correctly recording is, by the way, basically the only recording of POS George's voice we were able to obtain after months of investigating. In January 2017, George Kotrol has been in prison for almost six months. He's been convicted, but is still waiting for a sentence. And while he waits, Nigel Farage, his old boss who's just stepped down as a leader of U-Kip, could be found surrounded by cushions and orange juice on the huge cream safer of morning television. And a happy new year, our top story this morning. There, he's confronted with a front page headline about POS George. Farage AID faces 20 years for Black Mel Drug Plot. George Swinford, Cultural 22. A rest of it actually wins you in America. Farage is about to get an opportunity to distance himself from POS George. What's your reaction to this? He's not an employee. He was a volunteer. He was unpaid. He was helping me do stuff. He'd been part of our party for a couple of years. We never had any suspicions about him at all. He faced 21 charges in America. 20 have been dropped. He's pleaded guilty to a sea grade felony. Listen, I can't be responsible for whatever and around me does. Disappointed what he's done? Surprise that he was 20 years old. At the time this happened. Guilt, no guilt, fallen into bad company, I'm not sure. The shame means I'm quickly. I said I'm not happy, I've been noticed as a new year. Could we get a camera on Nigel Farage's socks, please? Because the one thing we need to be. But I find his response fascinating. To students of Westminster, behind the Bonhamie, Farage is a pretty ruthless guy. Like plenty of other politicians, he's happy to dispense with people who have threatened his position or suddenly posed unnecessary reputational problems. But here is the opposite. His response is cute. It's couched. But it's also clear. He doesn't know if George is guilty. What he does know is that he was younger at the time. He's almost backing him. And when it comes to the sentencing, the judge in Arizona gives post-George 88 months in prison. Taking into account time served, he's practically ready to be released. Vinicia, you've been looking into how we got off so lightly. What have you found? Well, we know he served eight months and that was the absolute lowest period of detention allowed by the US legal guidance. Post-George did also have to pay $10,000 in so-called restitution court payments. But to get an idea of this was a normal thing given the context, I thought it would be good to speak to a lawyer. My name is Paul Charlton. I'm a former career prosecutor. I spent most of my 16 years prosecuting in the federal system. For six years, I was the US attorney in Arizona, which is the chief federal law enforcement officer in the state of Arizona. I'm now a partner in a law firm in private practice. Paul was actually talking to me from his cattle ranch in Northeast Arizona. And he told me he wasn't surprised by the sentence post-George received. What they typically call the loss amount was relatively small. Mr. Cotrol had no prior convictions. He was relatively young. He showed contrition at the time of sentencing. And of course, post-George claimed to want to steal the money rather than launder it. And the federal agents couldn't be certain what their real plan was. they can't be sure essentially if he is a professional money laundrer or he's just a chance or in a thief. What's your senses to which it is? Well Paul the prosecutor said post George was at the very least very inexperienced. I don't know what drug dealers there are that longed 20 thousand dollars but that's pocket change for drug dealers especially here in Arizona. So that shows some gross inexperience in an initial foray with somebody who really doesn't understand the drug world or the money laundering world. If he was a genuine money laundrer he certainly wasn't any good at it. And I know there's no leniency for being ineffective at committing crimes but there is some leniency and some mercy that's owed to individuals who are clearly fumbling through an attempt to make some money. What I find really interesting here in the court documents is it really gives us a sense of the circumstances of George's life at the time of the crime. You know we can see here that it was a described as a dark period in his life and that he had a horrible gambling addiction. It even says that the reason he had not been employed before by his parents or his family members was because he was considered somewhat of a black sheep of the family and allegedly was disinherited at the time. So this is one of the weird dynamics in the story isn't it because it is sort of a story of glamorous world of high finance but it's also kind of very personal quite sad story in some ways. It seems like at least the American justice system has partially lead into that. So they sort of seen him as being a way of a child who's got messed up with some weird stuff. I should say at this point his parents back supporting him as well and the courts are basically giving him a shot at redemption aren't they? This is a general sense of empathy. In March 2017 George cultural is released from prison. He returns home to the UK. For most people, a criminal conviction and admission of a deliberate attempt to defraud someone of tens of thousands of pounds would carry some stigma. But post George puts it proudly at the top of his now deleted linked in page under experience. Federal inmate. He gives an interview to a national newspaper which clearly contradicts his statement to the US court claiming the whole thing was a misunderstanding that he walked accidentally into a stand after being invited to a business meeting. And then somehow he's back with Farage. There are photos from that suburb of George drinking on the street outside of London pub. He's swapped the orange prison jumpsuit for some dark blue tatering. And standing two feet away is Nigel Farage. They leave together in a show third driven range rover. Post George in the front seat. The convicted criminal once again in the reform leaders in a circle. Post George has recently applied to Donald Trump for a presidential pardon for his conviction. So I wake up with an invitation and what's up to meet a source who has intonation knowledge of the cultural Farage relationship and it was quite the discussion. Throughout this investigation I've been recording voice nets to myself and my colleagues. Peace and together the conversations with sources we've set out just how close the pair are today. I said that the closest with Farage is such that half the communication on war is non-verbal. They're just around each other all the time. It's like they don't need to be talking. It's like family was a phrase the person needs. Some of those I speak to portray George almost like a man servant. He's the one moving Farage's chair back for him to sit down lighting his cigarettes. Other people said George is devoted to people his mother and Farage. And that phrase like family is interesting. Nigel Farage has described post George as like a son and cultural is called Farage a father figure. In a recent interview with the high-sighting magazine Tatler he jokingly called the reform leader Daddy. It is clearly a profound friendship and one which's benefited both men. For as soon as post George leaves prison, Farage is there once again. He welcomes him with open arms back into the Firmament, the band of Brach Zeteers bound by their shared adventures a previous year and back I suppose into his family. And George suddenly flush with cash from activities we'll get on to start paying Theralaman's Farage's lifestyle. At first he's a small dinner wine cigarettes. Forage then was in the midst of a separation. He'd moved out of the family home married raises for children and there were remas he was struggling for money. But over time he's contributions balloon. Prior to the 2024 election, post George paid almost 10,000 pounds to send Farage to a right wing conference in Belgium. George is also recorded as paying for Farage's 15,000 pound flight to meet Elon Musk at Mar-a-Larco in December 2024. I've spent an hour going through with him what his strategy was. How he got new voters registered. Yet that is just what Farage has declared publicly. We here the Sunday Times Insight team can reveal that in recent years post George's paid or provided for everything from Farage's back office to accommodation to security to members of staff. None of this has appeared where one would expect to find it, where it appears one should find it in parliamentary registers. When we put this to Nigel Farage he denied breaking any rules. But I'm skipping ahead we'll get the details later. In the meantime let's stick with 2017. Post George has managed to keep the confidence of Farage despite a criminal conviction. Now he wants to rebuild his future. At his sentencing in Arizona the transcript shows the judge was concerned about what George would do next. The question that looms in my head is what are you going to do for employment, work, given the background that you have? George Kotrol told the court he returned to education. He told the UK media he turned to charitable work. Instead post George booted overseas and went to make his fortune from gambling and cryptocurrency. While making this podcast series we approached both George Kotrol and Nigel Farage. George Kotrol says his support of Mr Farage is the result of friendship and shared political ideology, not any hope or expectation of receiving anything in return. Nigel Farage described Mr Kotrol as a longstanding friend, both deny any wrongdoing. You've been listening to Post George, the criminal behind Farage, with me, Gabriel Pogrand, along with Venetian Mingus and Manu Medelo. This series is produced and exact by Will Revin Kate Landle. The assistant producer is Killepp Fountain, sound designed by Tiffany Dimack, theme-tight and unoriginal music by Adam Forren, and the head of podcast at the Times is Dan Box. [BLANK_AUDIO]