The messages seen by the BBC were sent on 3 April 2019, two months after Coburn joined the party. He had been UKIP's leader in Scotland while Gill led the party in Wales, and they served as MEPs together for five years. Gill wrote to Voloshyn that he is "seeing D... in morning" and asks "how much was for him." Voloshyn replies "6.5 USD" – this appears to mean $6,500.
The exchange apparently concerned a meeting of the "editorial board" of two pro-Russian TV channels in Ukraine called 112 Ukraine and NewsOne. Coburn was the only man named David who the BBC could find that had been publicly named as appearing on this editorial board. At first, the BBC couldn’t get a response, presumably using a mobile number or email, so eventually they doorstepped him at - wait for this - his French chateau! Coburn was apparently so keen to get the UK out of Europe that he now has a house in France. Amazing.
Anyway, Coburn flatly denied the accusation that he took Russian money.
However, it still seems that two Brexit Party MEPs took bribes (or Gill took money for two MEPs) to air Kremlin-inspired talking points about Ukraine. And that person appears to be Mr Coburn unless the authorities can track down another Gill colleague named David, who was a member of the Brexit Party, an MEP and on the editorial board of two Ukrainian TV stations. It can’t be a very long list.
They could start by speaking to Gill. They certainly know where he is living at the moment. That might not be fruitful since, although he pleaded guilty, at his initial police interview, he answered “no comment” to most questions. He may feel like being more cooperative now that he's facing at least five years in a cell.
The whole affair raises more questions in my own mind. What did Gill and Coburn (or this other person named David) say in the European Parliament or elsewhere in return for money, that was substantially different to what Farage had already said publicly, apparently for nothing?
Gill's work for Voloshyn took place in 2018-19. Farage had already appeared 17 times on Russia Today and in 2016 had even been offered his own show by the Kremlin-controlled TV Channel, now banned in the UK. He said in 2014 that Vladimir Putin was the world leader he most admired, praising him for his handling of the crisis in Syria. Farage has blamed NATO and the EU for provoking Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
He is well-known for making money from his status, apart from RT and other media outlets. When he was an MEP in 2016, he declared his income from media contracts to be between 5001 and 10,000 euros a month. His parliamentary register of interests reveals money coming in from all directions. He owns his own political party and has another company to handle his media income.
Farage's current partner, Laure Ferrari, was involved in a fraud investigation concerning a Eurosceptic think tank, the Institute for Direct Democracy in Europe (IDDE), which she managed. She wasn't convicted, but last year, two donors to the IDDE were found guilty of fraud and money laundering.
Today, he actually creates videos featuring words written and paid for by other people for a US-based business called Cameo. He is said to be the highest earning MP in the House of Commons.
So, why wouldn't Moscow or pro-Russian elements in Ukraine offer money to Farage, a man with Russian sympathies and a known interest in the trappings of wealth, and why wouldn't Farage accept it if it were? Why pay the monkeys when you could have the organ grinder? It makes zero sense to me. Has he ever been offered money to say things in or out of the European Parliament?
The accusations of racism are still swirling around Farage and that begs another question. What happens if senior members of Reform UK Ltd - sole director N P Farage - decide Farage has become a liability and is dragging the party into the gutter? They can hardly kick him out. Presumably, they would have to leave, not him.
It could be the first time in history where the entire membership of a party has to quit and create a new one. Fancy that.
