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Rishi Sunak has been criticised for announcing a “surprise” round of honours – including a knighthood for a major donor to the Conservative Party.

It was announced on the Thursday before the Easter bank holiday weekend that Mohamed Mansour was being knighted for business, charity and political service – he had given £5m to the Tories in 2023 and is a senior treasurer at the party.

A number of Conservative MPs were also made knights and dames.

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Labour’s chair, Anneliese Dodds, said Mr Sunak‘s nominations were “either the arrogant act of an entitled man who’s stopped caring what the public thinks, or the demob-happy self-indulgence of someone who doesn’t expect to be prime minister much longer”.

Asked by Sky News if Labour would rule out giving donors honours if they were in government, Ms Dodds said giving money should not be an “automatic pass”.

Following the announcement, Mr Mansour said: “This award is the greatest honour of my life. I am thrilled and hugely grateful.

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“This award would have meant so much to my father and mother. I wish they could have lived to see this day. This honour is for them, for the values they taught my siblings and I and for everything they did for us.”

Downing Street sources highlighted Mr Mansour’s work supporting charities – including financially backing a memorial to those who died due to COVID.

Speaking to Sky News, Conservative peer and polling expert Lord Robert Hayward said the public would be “unhappy” with the move.

While some non-political figures – like director Christopher Nolan – were also knighted, it’s the political acts that will draw attention.

Mohamed Mansour, who has been knighted by Rishi Sunak. Pic: Reuters
Image:
Mohamed Mansour, who has been knighted by Rishi Sunak. Pic: Reuters

This will hardly strengthen confidence in the honours system


Rob Powell Political reporter

Rob Powell

Political correspondent

@robpowellnews

We’ve been here before.

Questions over who gets gongs stretch back decades.

The appointment of Tory donor and treasurer Mohamed Mansour inevitably relights the row.

Labour has accused Rishi Sunak of being “demob happy” and “self-indulgent”.

Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to clean up cronyism in the honours system.

What that means in practice is unclear, although he has said he wouldn’t have a resignation honours list if he became prime minister.

We will wait and see if knighthoods are dished out to major Labour donors if the party makes it into government.

In fact, it’s the timing of this announcement that is potentially more interesting than the contents.

There isn’t usually an “Easter Honours List”.

That’s fuelled speculation of attempts to square off supporters ahead of an early general election.

Government sources deny that and say the answer is purely administrative – appointments to the privy council from the devolved assemblies were required, and so the prime minister also wanted to take the opportunity to honour other individuals too.

It’s a somewhat curious explanation.

But whatever the truth, the sight of another honour being handed out to someone who’s very much in the fold of party politics will hardly strengthen confidence in the behind-the-scenes machinations of Westminster.

Lord Haywood said: “I think people don’t like it, there’s no question about that.

“The problem is that you’ve got people who are genuine philanthropists who also give money to a political party, and that’s where the line isn’t differentiated.”

He added that he was “really surprised” by the timing of the list – but it probably doesn’t say anything about the timing of a general election.

Normally, honours are granted at New Year’s on the monarch’s birthday, or after the resignation of a prime minister, although this is a convention not a rule.

The timing of the announcement, while parliament is in recess, has also raised eyebrows – although sources suggested the timing was linked to the need to make appointments to the Privy Council, including the new Welsh First Minister Vaughan Gething.

Tory MP Philip Davies was one of the Conservative MPs to be made knight. He is known for hosting a television show on GB News with his wife, fellow Conservative MP and minister Esther McVey.

Ex-sports minister Tracey Crouch will become a dame having run a review into reforming the UK football system, and farming minister Mark Spencer will also become a sir.

Treasury Select Committee chair Harriett Baldwin – a Conservative MP – will also become a dame.

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Away from politics, Mr Nolan and wife and producer Emma Thomas have been handed honours following the release of award-winning biopic Oppenheimer.

Dr Demis Hassabis, who co-founded Google’s DeepMind AI business, was also made a knight.

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SafeMoon boss cites DOJ’s nixed crypto unit in latest bid to toss suit

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SafeMoon boss cites DOJ’s nixed crypto unit in latest bid to toss suit

SafeMoon boss cites DOJ’s nixed crypto unit in latest bid to toss suit

Braden John Karony, the CEO of crypto firm SafeMoon, has cited the US Department of Justice’s directive to no longer pursue some crypto charges in an effort to get the case against him and his firm dismissed. 

In an April 9 letter to New York federal court judge Eric Komitee, Karony’s attorney, Nicholas Smith, said the court should consider an April 7 memo from US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche that disbanded the DOJ’s crypto unit.

“The Department of Justice is not a digital assets regulator,” Blanche said in the memo, which added the DOJ “will no longer pursue litigation or enforcement actions that have the effect of superimposing regulatory frameworks on digital assets.”

Blanche also directed prosecutors not to charge violations of securities and commodities laws when the case would require the DOJ to determine if a digital asset is a security or commodity when charges such as wire fraud are available.

SafeMoon boss cites DOJ’s nixed crypto unit in latest bid to toss suit

An excerpt of the letter Karony sent to Judge Komitee. Source: PACER

In the footnote of the letter, Karony’s counsel wrote an exemption to the DOJ’s new directive would be if the parties have an interest in defending that a crypto asset is a security, but added that “Karony does not have such an interest.”

The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission filed simultaneous charges of securities violations, wire fraud, and money laundering against Karony and other SafeMoon executives in November 2023.

The government alleged Karony, SafeMoon creator Kyle Nagy and chief technology officer Thomas Smith withdrew assets worth $200 million from the project and misappropriated investor funds. 

Another attempt to nix the case

The letter is Karony’s latest attempt to get the case thrown out. In February, he asked that his trial, scheduled to begin on March 31, be delayed as he argued President Donald Trump’s proposed crypto policies could potentially affect the case.

Related: OKX pleads guilty, pays $505M to settle DOJ charges

Later in February, Smith changed his plea to guilty and said he took part in the alleged $200 million crypto fraud scheme. Nagy is at large and is believed to be in Russia.

SafeMoon filed for bankruptcy in December 2023, a month after it was hit with twin cases from the SEC and DOJ. It was also hacked in March 2023, with the hacker agreeing to return 80% of the funds.

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Ukraine floats 23% tax on some crypto income, exemptions for stablecoins

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Ukraine floats 23% tax on some crypto income, exemptions for stablecoins

Ukraine floats 23% tax on some crypto income, exemptions for stablecoins

Ukraine’s financial regulator has proposed taxing certain crypto transactions as personal income at a rate of up to 23% but excluding crypto-to-crypto transactions and stablecoins.  

Crypto transactions would be taxed at 18% with a 5% military levy on top as part of the proposed framework, released on April 8 by Ukraine’s National Securities and Stock Market Commission. 

NSSMC Chairman Ruslan Magomedov said in an April 8 statement that “the issue of crypto taxes is not a hypothesis, but a reality that is fast approaching.” 

He added that the agency created the framework to help lawmakers make an “informed resolution” by considering each suggestion’s advantages and disadvantages because “these aspects can have a critical impact on the market and tax liability.”

Under the NSSMC’s proposed crypto framework, a tax will be applied when crypto is cashed out for fiat currency or exchanged for goods or services. 

Crypto-to-crypto transactions wouldn’t be taxed, bringing Ukraine in line with other European countries, including Austria and France, as well as crypto-friendly jurisdictions like Singapore, the NSSMC said. 

The regulator says it “makes sense” to exclude stablecoins backed by foreign currencies or only apply a 5% or 9% tax because Ukraine’s tax code already excludes income from transactions in “foreign exchange values.” 

Ukraine floats 23% tax on some crypto income, exemptions for stablecoins

A translated excerpt of the NSSMC’s report said stablecoins backed by foreign currencies could be exempt from taxation. Source: NSSMC

Mining, staking, hard forks and airdrops 

Other crypto-related activities, such as mining, staking and airdrops, are also addressed in the framework which floated a few options for taxation. 

The NSSMC said crypto mining is generally considered a business activity, but there might be a general tax-free limit for certain crypto transactions, including mining. 

Under the framework, staking could be considered as “business captive income” or only taxed if the crypto is cashed out for fiat currencies. While hard forks and airdrops could be taxed either as ordinary income or when the tokens are cashed. 

Related: Ukraine officials get training on crypto and virtual assets investigation

The regulator suggests a tax-free threshold could help “relieve the burden on small investors” and is common in other jurisdictions. 

Exemptions for donations, transfers between family members, and holders who keep their crypto for a set amount of time are also flagged as possibilities. However, the NSSMC says the exemption might not apply to non-custodial crypto wallets

Last December, Daniil Getmantsev, head of the tax committee of Ukraine’s parliament, said a draft bill to legalize cryptocurrencies was under review and expected to be finalized early this year. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy first signed a law establishing a legal framework for the country to operate a regulated crypto market in March 2022. 

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21Shares files for spot Dogecoin ETF in the US

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21Shares files for spot Dogecoin ETF in the US

21Shares files for spot Dogecoin ETF in the US

Digital asset manager 21Shares has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a spot Dogecoin exchange-traded fund, following similar filings from rivals Bitwise and Grayscale.

The 21Shares Dogecoin ETF would seek to track the price of the memecoin Dogecoin (DOGE), according to the firm’s April 9 Form S-1 registration statement. The Dogecoin Foundation’s corporate arm, House of Doge, plans to assist 21Shares with marketing the fund.

21Shares said Coinbase Custody would be the proposed custodian of its Dogecoin ETF but did not specify a fee, ticker or what stock exchange it would list on.

21Shares files for spot Dogecoin ETF in the US

Source: James Seyffart

21Shares must also file a 19b-4 filing with the SEC to kickstart the regulator’s approval process for the fund. 

DOGE currently has a $24.2 billion market cap and is the eighth-largest cryptocurrency by value. It was created in 2013 as a joke and is a fork of Lucky Coin, which itself is a fork of Bitcoin.

21Shares’ proposed Dogecoin ETF is the company’s latest effort to expand its spot crypto ETF offerings, which currently includes only a spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) fund.

The issuer also filed with the SEC in February to launch a spot Polkadot (DOT) ETF and last year, it filed to create a spot XRP (XRP) ETF.

Related: Dogecoin millionaires are buying dips as DOGE price eyes 30% rally

The recent surge in crypto ETF filings reflects a “spaghetti cannon approach” from issuers testing which products the new SEC leadership might approve, Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart said in February.

“Issuers will try to launch many many different things and see what sticks,” Seyffart said.

Seyffart and fellow Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said in February that there is a 75% chance that the SEC will approve a spot Dogecoin ETF this year, while the betting platform Polymarket currently gives approval odds of 64%.

21Shares and House of Doge partner for DOGE funds in Switzerland

21Shares also said on April 9 that it partnered with House of Doge to launch a fully backed Dogecoin exchange-traded product on Switzerland’s SIX Swiss Exchange.

The 21Shares Dogecoin product will trade under the ticker “DOGE” with a 2.5% fee.

21Shares president Duncan Moir said that Dogecoin “has become more than a cryptocurrency: it represents a cultural and financial movement that continues to drive mainstream adoption, and DOGE offers investors a regulated avenue to be part of this exciting project.”

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