Reform UK’s new Treasurer Nick Candy reveals he spoke to Elon Musk this morning
Reform UK’s new Treasurer has revealed he spoke to Elon Musk this morning following suggestions the tech tycoon could make a multi-million-pound donation to Nigel Farage’s party.
Nick Candy, the billionaire husband of singer Holly Valance and former Tory party member, told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby that the pair exchanged messages after his appointment was announced.
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“I was messaging him this morning,” Mr Candy said.
“I cannot further discuss that. We were speaking directly.”
Property tycoon Mr Candy said he renounced his Conservative membership because of “too many broken promises” and a “breach of trust with the wealth creators in our country”.
He said he would take up the fundraising role for Reform UK in the new year.
Asked if he has held discussions with Mr Musk about donations, he told Sky News they have had “no conversations yet” on the matter but added: “If Elon wants to give it… then of course Reform would be very interested in that.”
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Is Reform UK winning the ‘bro vote’?
Mr Musk has expressed support for Reform UK on his X social media platform, suggesting the party could win the next general election.
However, party leader Mr Farage, who was interviewed alongside Mr Candy, has rubbished reports the world’s richest man could donate £80m.
He called it a “story without any basis in fact”.
He said: “Elon Musk is very supportive of what Reform is trying to do, supportive of me personally. And we’ve got the connections with him, and Nick’s got good connections with him as well.
“He’s giving us political support. We have, at this stage, neither solicited or been offered donations.”
Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Pic: AP
Reform has been buoyed by a series of recent Tory defections, including former minister Andrea Jenkyns, and described Mr Candy’s appointment as its “latest coup” as it prepares for the local elections in May.
Mr Farage told Beth Rigby that racist and homophobic comments made by some of his candidates standing at the July general election “hugely” hurt the campaign and it “wasn’t really in a fit state” to fight at the polls.
He insisted that’s now “all changed”, and the party is vetting candidates for the English county council elections, “to a standard no other party for local elections ever has done”.
Nigel Farage and Nick Candy at Millbank TV studios. Pic: PA
‘He’s a fine young man’
Mr Farage was then asked about the case of James McMurdock, one of Reform’s five new MPs who was jailed 18 years ago for repeatedly kicking his girlfriend, according to court records seen by The Times.
He spent 21 days in a young offenders’ institution after admitting to the attack, but the investment banker did not disclose his record ahead of the election and after it came to light, downplayed it as a “teenage indiscretion”.
Asked how he would deal with cases like this if they emerge in the future, Mr Farage said he believes in “Christian forgiveness”.
The Reform leader argued that if half of the people currently in a young offenders’ institution turned out as well as Mr McMurdock today “we’d be a better country”.
It was put to Mr Farage that there is a discrepancy between what court documents say – that Mr McMurdock kicked his girlfriend four times – and what he said in a statement, which is that he pushed her.
James McMurdock. Pic: PA
Mr Farage said: “I tell you what. We’re busy right?
“We’re building a new political party. You want to talk about a spent conviction from 20 years ago. What’s happened has happened.
“Whether there is a discrepancy or not, I don’t know. What I know is he’s a fine young man, he’s turned out really very, very well. He’s a serving member of Parliament.”
Mr McMurdock has said he still feels “deeply ashamed and apologetic” over the assault and that he “faced the consequences then and paid for my action in full”.
He said the “shame” of that night “led me to turn my life around” and he now has a wife and four children, and is expecting a fifth in February.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is considering rule changes to let companies more freely issue tokenized securities, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce said in a speech published on May 8.
The regulator is “considering a potential exemptive order” for firms using blockchain technology to “issue, trade, and settle securities” that would release them from certain registration requirements, Peirce said in the speech.
For example, decentralized exchanges (DEXs) may no longer need to register “as a broker-dealer, clearing agency, or an exchange,” Peirce said. The SEC has previously brought numerous charges against DEXs such as Uniswap for failing to register as securities exchanges.
Firms should “not have to comply with inapt regulations, which, in many cases, were developed well before the technologies being tested existed and may be obviated by attributes of that technology,” Peirce said.
Under such an exemption, companies would still be expected to comply with rules designed to prevent fraud and market manipulation, the commissioner said. They may also need to meet certain disclosure and recordkeeping requirements.
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Sharp policy pivot
The SEC has dramatically pivoted its stance on cryptocurrency oversight since US President Donald Trump took office in January.
Under the leadership of former SEC Chair Gary Gensler, the agency brought upward of 100 lawsuits against crypto firms for alleged securities law violations.
However, under Trump nominee Paul Atkins, who was sworn in as chair on April 21, the agency has claimed jurisdiction over a narrower segment of cryptocurrencies.
In February, the SEC issued guidance stating that memecoins — if clearly identified as purely speculative assets with no intrinsic value — do not qualify as investment contracts under US law.
In April, the regulator said that stablecoins — digital tokens pegged to the US dollar — similarly do not qualify as securities if they are marketed solely as a means of making payments.
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Missouri House Bill 594, a bill that would eliminate capital gains tax in the US state, has passed a vote in the state House of Representatives and now heads to Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe’s desk for signature.
According to attorney Aaron Brogan, the bill stipulates a 100% income tax deduction for any capital gains income because the Missouri tax code does not explicitly distinguish between capital gains and income tax.
Brogan told Cointelegraph that the specific mechanism to exempt capital gains taxes outlined in HB 594 is unique and compared it to a similar income tax deduction in the federal tax code. The attorney explained:
“The most natural comparison is the state and local tax (SALT) deduction that the federal government offers — where the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) permits individuals to deduct a certain amount of tax paid in state and local taxes. This is the inverse, which I have never seen before.”
The bill’s timing is significant in that it follows proposals from US President Donald Trump to overhaul the country’s income tax system through comprehensive reform.
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Trump proposes eliminating federal income tax in the United States
Trump has proposed offsetting federal income taxes or eliminating the income tax and replacing the federal tax revenue with money raised through import tariffs.
“When Tariffs cut in, many people’s income taxes will be substantially reduced, maybe even completely eliminated. The focus will be on people making less than $200,000 a year,” the president wrote in an April 27 Truth Social post.
Trump added the plan will create more jobs in the United States as factories return to avoid import duties on their finished products.
Despite this, the market reaction to the tariffs has been overwhelmingly negative, with the stock market recording trillions of dollars in losses in response to tariff headlines and crypto markets shedding hundreds of billions in value.
Additionally, bond yields spiked following the tariff announcements — a sign that investors were rejecting US bonds, which are traditionally seen as a flight to safety.
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Former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky will probably be allowed to travel for his daughter’s wedding regardless of the outcome of his May 8 sentencing hearing.
In a May 8 filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge John Koeltl approved an application for Mashinsky to travel from New York to Memphis, Tennessee, between May 26 and May 29 for his daughter’s wedding. The approval was available on the public docket as of May 8, but appeared to have been removed at the time of publication.
Judge Koeltl will determine in a May 8 hearing whether Mashinsky serves prison time following a plea deal with prosecutors.
The former Celsius CEO appeared ready to go to trial in 2024 until his lawyers lost a motion to have his charges dismissed. In December, He pleaded guilty to commodities fraud and a fraudulent scheme to manipulate the price of the platform’s native token, CEL.
Related: Celsius’ Mashinsky lashes out at ‘death-in-prison sentence’
Mashinsky has been free on a $40-million bond since July 2023, with travel outside certain areas requiring court approval, such as the roughly 900-mile (1,500-kilometer) distance between New York and Memphis. At the time of publication, it was unclear if he will be expected to surrender to authorities.
Potentially facing decades in prison
Prosecutors have asked the judge to impose a 20-year sentence on the former Celsius CEO, while Mashinsky’s lawyers requested that he serve one year and one day in prison. The hearing could be a bellwether for how criminal cases involving cryptocurrency could change under the Trump administration, which appointed the interim US Attorney for the court district.
On April 17, Mashinsky’s lawyers submitted a letter from his oldest daughter in support of her father ahead of sentencing. The letter claims that Mashinsky does not deserve a “severe punishment,” writing that he “never set out to steal from anyone.” Other members of his family penned similar letters.
The same court district oversaw the sentencing of former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried, who is currently serving 25 years in prison.
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