Pardoned BitMEX founder funds UK right-wing political hub, report

Pardoned BitMEX founder Ben Delo is funding a Westminster political hub that lends support to a network of controversial right-wing politicians and influencers, an investigation from The Guardian and HOPE not hate has revealed. 

The hub, known as “The Sanctuary,” is made up of a number of rooms overlooking Westminster Abbey to which politicians, race scientists, and anti-abortion campaigners are given access free of charge. The rooms are reportedly used for events, office work, and podcasting.

Right-wing MP Rupert Lowe used the hub to launch his Restore Britain party after he was ousted from Reform UK. 

The race science magazine Aporia, which has published articles on race and IQ, has also hosted events at The Sanctuary alongside the anti-woke author Eric Kaufmann, who spoke about “the problems with… black culture” and how people should be “comfortable with a natural level of inequality.”

Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch have visited The Sanctuary to appear on right-wing podcast Triggernometry. 

Read more: BitMEX has now lost all US profits after founders plead guilty, lawyer says

A free speech festival promoting “anti-science, anti-expert, and anti-public health positions,” called The Battle of Ideas, uses The Sanctuary and has received £100,000 in funding from Delo. 

An annual summer party is hosted each year at the hub and attracts a host of right-wing figures. 

Last year’s events saw the likes of former Conservative MP Michael Gove, former Reform UK Deputy Leader Ben Habib, Reform UK loyalists Matt Goodwin and James Orr, and Paul Coleman, the director of a right-wing Christian group that helped overturn the Roe v Wade legislation.

When Queen Elizabeth died, Delo, right-wing figure Jordan Peterson, and his wife, Tammy Roberts, watched the funeral from The Sanctuary. 

Delo doesn’t want The Sanctuary’s operations getting out

The Sanctuary takes great care to keep its operations under wraps, withholding its name from the building’s lobby plaques and telling users to keep quiet about the hub online. 

Delo was convicted for failing to implement money laundering checks at his crypto exchange that were compliant with the Bank Secrecy Act.

Alongside his fellow BitMEX founders and the exchange itself, Delo was pardoned by US President Donald Trump last year as part of his attempts to appeal to the crypto industry. 

Read more: Trump pardons Ross Ulbricht but Silk Road deputy remains behind bars

Delo runs the hub alongside his chief of staff, Jeremy Hildreth, an American branding consultant and old Oxford friend.

Hildreth manages the day-to-day operations of The Sanctuary and has donated £26,755 in legal costs to Badenoch for an online harassment case in 2021.

The Sanctuary itself is decorated like a gentleman’s club, and is adorned with gothic architecture, a taxidermy penguin, pictures of Victorian colonists, and cabinets filled with expensive gin and champagne. 

In one framed picture of Delo, there’s a letter from Claire Fox, who runs The Battle of Ideas, praising Delo as “our free speech hero.” A copy of Delo’s pardon from Donald Trump is also framed in the halls.

Delo has also portrayed himself as a generous philanthropist and says that he’ll donate half of his wealth to good causes. Delo claims he has donated £100 million, and earlier this month, he donated £20 million to a maths and physics institute. 

On top of free speech and public debate causes, he’s also reportedly donated to fields in neurodiversity and Commonwealth relations. Delo’s philanthropy efforts were also praised by Michael Gove, who said he was “proud to know” Delo. 

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