61 Facts About Arron Andrew Fraser Banks

Arron Fraser Andrew Banks was born on 1966 and is a British businessman and political donor.

In November 2018 the National Crime Agency opened an investigation into Arron Andrew Fraser Banks following concerns raised over the source of his funding.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks was reported to have had multiple meetings with Russian embassy officials as well as being offered business opportunities in Russia in the run-up to the Brexit referendum.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks said he had been "completely vindicated" after reaching a settlement with the Electoral Commission.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks was born in Cheshire, England, and raised by his mother in Basingstoke, Hampshire; his father worked as a sugar plantation manager in various African countries.

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Arron Andrew Fraser Banks then attended St Bartholomew's School in Newbury but was expelled again.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks returned to Basingstoke, where he sold paintings, vacuum cleaners, and then houses.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks was offered a junior job at the insurance market of Lloyd's of London.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks used the money to found Commercial Vehicle Direct about which he says "within a very short period we were the largest van insurance company in the country".

Over seven years, along with Australian business partner John Gannon, Arron Andrew Fraser Banks expanded this business to become Group Direct Limited, and in 2008 the company floated by means of a reverse takeover as Brightside Group.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks was its CEO from June 2011 to June 2012, at which time the company was listed on the Alternative Investment Market.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks was the chief executive of Southern Rock Insurance Company in 2014, which underwrites insurance policies for the website GoSkippy.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks was previously CEO of AIM-listed Manx Financial Group from April 2008 to February 2009.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks owns Eldon Insurance, whose CEO Elizabeth Bilney was in charge at Leave.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks said that Eldon's business had been transformed by the same AI technology used in the Brexit campaign.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks bought Old Down Manor from musician Mike Oldfield, converting it into a wedding venue.

However, a spokesperson for Arron Andrew Fraser Banks has denied any links to the lawyer named and denies that Arron Andrew Fraser Banks was involved with the Papers.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks has stated that he has a controlling interest in a diamond mine in Kimberley, South Africa, and a licence to mine in Lesotho.

In July 2018, Arron Andrew Fraser Banks denied that money paid to a government minister in Lesotho was a bribe; it had been paid to guarantee diamond mining rights in Lesotho.

In 2013, Arron Andrew Fraser Banks paid £65,000 into the private bank account of Thesele Maseribane, then the Basotho minister for women's equality.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks subsequently covered the £350,000 costs of a political campaign for Maseribane, in 2014, following a military coup in Lesotho.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks has connections to companies based in Gibraltar and the Isle of Man, and close connections with family members of the Belizean Prime Minister.

However, following remarks made by The Thick of It creator Armando Iannucci on BBC One's Question Time programme, Arron Andrew Fraser Banks denied owning a company in Belize or seeking to avoid UK tax "via any device".

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks has been a "substantial" shareholder in STM Fidecs, of which Leave.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks was previously a Conservative Party donor but in October 2014 decided to donate £100,000 to UKIP.

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Arron Andrew Fraser Banks said that he had changed party allegiance because he agrees with UKIP's policies and its view that the European Union "is holding the UK back" because it's a "closed shop for bankrupt countries".

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks has been described as the "leading figure" behind the anti-EU Grassroots Out and Leave.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks signalled his intention to stand for UKIP in the constituency of Thornbury and Yate at the 2015 general election, but the candidate chosen by the party was Russ Martin, who came third.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks suggested he might stand in Clacton at the 2017 general election against Douglas Carswell, before opting not to be a candidate.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks claimed in March 2017 that he had been suspended from UKIP; he believed the reason was that he had criticised the leadership.

In May 2018, Arron Andrew Fraser Banks attended a fundraising event for the Democratic Unionist Party, alongside Nigel Farage, and stated that he would support a bid by Farage to seek office as a DUP candidate after the end of his tenure as Member of the European Parliament in 2019.

Spokesman for Nigel Farage said that Arron Andrew Fraser Banks had funded the Chipping Sodbury office for the South Gloucestershire Conservatives "to the tune of £250,000".

UKIP source told The Guardian that Arron Andrew Fraser Banks had loaned £75,417 to Thornbury and Yate Conservative Party through Panacea Finance in September 2007, registered on the Electoral Commission and to be paid back by 2022.

However, Companies House records show that Arron Andrew Fraser Banks resigned from the company in September 2005; therefore it was considered questionable as to whether Arron Andrew Fraser Banks was controlling the company at the time, or whether he was "using the firm as a 'proxy donor'", according to The Guardian.

In October 2014, Arron Andrew Fraser Banks donated £1 million to the UK Independence Party and has since raised the equivalent of $11 million for the party.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks threatened Douglas Carswell with deselection in September 2015 when it emerged that Carswell supported Vote Leave, as opposed to the Leave.

EU campaign funded by Arron Andrew Fraser Banks, describing Carswell as "borderline autistic with mental illness wrapped in", according to The Huffington Post.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks was sceptical of UKIP under the leadership of Paul Nuttall.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks has considered starting and funding a pro-Brexit, nonpartisan citizens' movement called Patriotic Alliance, based on the Five Star Movement, which would target "the 200 worst, most corrupt MPs" for deselection.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks said that Britain's EU membership "is like having a first class ticket on the Titanic".

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks said in May 2016 that his strategy during the Brexit campaign was to "bore the electorate into submission", in the hope that a low turnout would favour Brexit.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks threatened to sue the official Vote Leave campaign's candidacy as the official spokesperson for the "Leave" vote in the 2016 EU referendum, which may have possibly delayed the vote by two months.

However, Arron Andrew Fraser Banks has since rejected this and stated that he would not pursue a judicial review any further.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks denied any wrongdoing and stated that he welcomed the police investigation to put an end to the allegations.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks accused Channel 4 News journalists of creating "fake news" themselves.

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Arron Andrew Fraser Banks described the United Kingdom's parliamentary Electoral Commission as "the legal division of the In campaign" and disagreed with their decision to enlist Vote Leave as the official campaign.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks' response to the information commissioner, who in 2016 fined the campaign £50,000 for sending more than half a million unsolicited text messages, was a succinct "Whatever".

In 2017, Arron Andrew Fraser Banks viewed the Brexit vote as "a kind of halfhearted revolution" due to the fact that Theresa May, who supported Britain remaining in the EU, would end up betraying those who voted to leave.

EU campaigners made by Arron Andrew Fraser Banks and by Better for the Country Ltd, a company of which Arron Andrew Fraser Banks is a registered director.

EU has gone into liquidation with co-founder Arron Banks appearing to write off a loan worth more than £7m.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks was offered a chance to invest in Russian-owned gold or diamond mines; the deal involved funding from a Russian state-owned bank, and was announced 12 days after the Brexit referendum.

Two years, Arron Andrew Fraser Banks said his only contacts with the Russian government consisted of one "boozy lunch" with the ambassador.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks claimed he was defamed after comments Cadwalladr made about his relationship with the Russian state.

On 19 January 2017 Arron Andrew Fraser Banks launched Westmonster alongside Michael Heaver, former press adviser to Nigel Farage.

At age 21, Arron Andrew Fraser Banks married his first wife, Caroline, with whom he has two daughters.

In 2001, Arron Andrew Fraser Banks married Russian Ekaterina Paderina, with whom he has two sons and a daughter.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks is reported to have received help to remain in the UK from Mike Hancock while he was a Liberal Democrat MP.

In 2014, Arron Andrew Fraser Banks reportedly lived in the village of Tockington near Bristol in a house with a "huge" Union flag flying over the front lawn, and owned another house overlooking a game reserve near Pretoria in South Africa.

In 2020, Arron Andrew Fraser Banks spent six months in Auckland, New Zealand after the country went into lockdown following the coronavirus pandemic.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks has previously voiced his support for the leader of the New Zealand First Party, Winston Peters.

Arron Andrew Fraser Banks was portrayed by actor Lee Boardman in the 2019 HBO and Channel 4 produced drama entitled Brexit: The Uncivil War.