Arron Banks

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Aaron Arron Fraser Andrew Banks (1966–) is the money man and self-styled "Bad Boy of Brexit" has funded one of the main sister organisations of Leave campaign, Leave.eu. He first gained prominence when in 2014 he gave a million pounds to United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), becoming one its main beneficiaries. However, his wealth and richness are very shady. To Americans and many of the readers of this site, Arron Banks was one of the people that were in the notorious gold lift in Trump Tower with Nigel Farage and Andy Wigmore.

His main background is in insurance, having first initially worked as an underwriter at well-known insurer Lloyd's of London instead of going to university. Afterwards, he later took over a tiny motorbike insurer, Motorcycle Direct, and helped turned it into the insurance outfit Eldon Insurance, which trades as itself as GoSkippy and does the insurance for Debenhams department store , is based in Bristol. He also owns the insurer Southern Rock Insurance, based in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, which underwrites Eldon. Flotation of Eldon on the smaller AIM stock market in 2017 made Arron Banks a multi-millionaire , leaving him with an estimated personal wealth of £20 million.

The links between Eldon and Leave.eu have been porous with staff at the insurer and Leave organisation in each others' shoes. His Breitbart-esque website Westmonster works on the same premises as Eldon.

Banks also is the director of around 35 companies in various tax havens, including Rock Holdings in the Isle of Man which is one of the companies that fund Eldon. It was also revealed in the Panama Papers that he has links to companies in the British Virgin Islands.

Diamonds are forever

Banks is connected to several diamond mines in Southern Africa, in South Africa, Lesotho and eSwatini, pitching that the mines provide millions of pounds of diamonds. Journalists who have visited the mines said they are not active and didn't produce anything other than a few pebbles.

The Russian connection

Bankski is married to a Russian, Ekaterina "Katya" Paderina with whom he has three children in addition to the two children from his first marriage. He is also good friends with [former] Russian ambassador Alexander Yakovenko, having had several lunches with him. Banks alleges that these meetings were to do with gold and diamond mining operations in Russia, however, these are not confirmed.

Katya Banks has a suspicious background herself, as she was good friends with Katia Zatuliveter who in 2004 had her security clearance as an MP's intern removed, due to the security services believing that Katia had connections with staff in the Russian embassy who were linked to the SVR.