Regarding that Farage aide busted for money laundering

A former aide to Nigel Farage who was arrested on money-laundering charges last year gave US federal agents “information” as part of a plea agreement that sharply reduced his possible prison sentence from a maximum of 20 years to eight months, according to court documents.

George Cottrell, a Briton who was arrested in the US last summer after attending the Republican National Convention with Farage, the former Ukip leader, received a sentence that was on the low end of the sentencing guidelines used to determine such cases even though the Arizona prosecutors in his case said they had evidence that showed Cottrell had shown “clear intent” to engage in criminal activity in the past.

  Guardian

"On the low end"? I should say, if the possibility was 20 years. That must have been some information he gave up.

Cottrell ultimately pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in a case that was unrelated to his work at Ukip. The crime was committed in 2014, before Cottrell worked for either the anti-EU party or Farage. Twenty other counts against him, including blackmail, were dismissed as part of the plea deal.

[...]

A court document filed by the prosecutors in February – which has not previously been reported in detail – advised the judge in the case to offer Cottrell a light prison sentence because he had been willing to “provide federal agents additional information after his arrest”.

Hear that Mssrs Cohen and Manafort?

Cottrell had been working in Farage’s office and claimed on his LinkedIn account to have co-directed Ukip’s EU referendum campaign fundraising.

I suppose you could launder money through a political campaign.

After the arrest, Farage called Cottrell a “22-year-old unpaid volunteer and party supporter” and said he knew nothing of the “series of allegations” that had been lodged against him.

A "coffee boy" perhaps.

According to court records that delved into the 2014 episode, Cottrell offered to help the undercover agents – who were posing as drug dealers – to disguise their drug profits and evade federal taxes. Prosecutors also alleged that Cottrell claimed to have contacts at banks that he could use to funnel illicit money to offshore accounts and then transfer them back to domestic accounts disguised as legitimate business income. Prosecutors said in court documents that the agents were “impressed with his knowledge of finance, US government procedures, and anti-money-laundering laws”.

[...]

Under the terms of his agreement with prosecutors, Cottrell admitted to communicating with individuals online in 2014 who were seeking to launder illicit funds. He also admitted that he had explained methods to them that they could use to launder the money. The case involved a sting operation in which federal agents posed as drug dealers. Cottrell met the undercover agents in Las Vegas in 2014, according to the original indictment, but the charges in connection with that meeting were dropped.

[...]

Cottrell had enjoyed a personal relationship with Farage and the Ukip donor Arron Banks. In his book about the Brexit campaign, Banks called Cottrell, the nephew of Lord Hesketh, a former Tory minister who defected to Ukip, “Posh George”.

“Posh to the point of caricature and wilfully abrasive, but extremely generous when it comes to picking up the bar tab,” Banks wrote.

[...]

The nature of the information Cottrell provided to federal agents is not spelled out in the court documents. But the documents state that the 23-year-old, who is living in the UK, provided federal agents with “additional information about his role in the offence and how he became involved”.

[...]

Twenty counts against Cottrell were dropped in the plea deal, including a conspiracy charge.

[...]

His attorney, Michael Kimerer, described the fraud as a single aberrant, abnormal and huge mistake, and said Cottrell had been a law-abiding citizen since that period in 2014, and that he had become involved in politics, which he enjoyed.

A natural progression, you might say.

He includes being a “federal inmate” on his LinkedIn resume, as well as working as a consultant at an unnamed private intelligence agency serving government and corporate clients. He allegedly worked for the intelligence firm from October 2014 to July 2016, while also working for Ukip from January 2016 until his arrest.

[...]

He also claims to have worked as a private client manager at an unnamed bank, specialised in “onboarding” wealthy clients and assisting in the implementation of “leading edge tax solutions within multiple jurisdictions”.

So that's how you list money launderer specializing in avoidance of taxes on your resumé.

What intelligence agency and doing what government work, I wonder.

[His] dramatic arrest occurred at O’Hare airport in Chicago on 22 July, just as Cottrell, who was travelling with Farage, was leaving the US for the UK after attending the Republican National Convention in Ohio.

Must have been getting the coffee when that picture was taken.

Posh George