A former politician in Nigel Farage’s Reform U.K. party was sentenced on Friday to 10 and a half years in prison for taking bribes to make pro-Russia statements in the European Parliament.
Nathan Gill, 52, admitted to being paid between 2018 and 2020 to make speeches and media appearances that were scripted by Oleg Voloshyn, a Ukrainian politician who had been an official in the Kremlin-backed government of Viktor Yanukovych. Mr. Voloshyn was a member of a pro-Russian political party at the time of the offenses.
Sanctions were imposed on Mr. Voloshyn by the United States and Britain in 2022. The British accused him of “spreading disinformation and pro-Russian narratives which support Russia’s actions in Ukraine.”
WhatsApp messages that were presented in court showed that Mr. Voloshyn ordered Mr. Gill to find other Brussels lawmakers to take on some tasks, including appearing on a pro-Russian television channel, 112 Ukraine, which was later banned from broadcasting in Ukraine.
Cmdr. Dominic Murphy of Britain’s Metropolitan Police said at a news briefing on Thursday that his team were investigating several former British lawmakers in the European Parliament who had been asked by Mr. Gill to raise parliamentary questions, make speeches or appear in the media at the behest of Mr. Voloshyn.
Commander Murphy said he could not name the ex-politicians but that several had attended voluntary interviews. “It is an ongoing investigation, and we will continue to follow that investigation wherever it goes,” he said.
The police believe that several other Brussels lawmakers may have been instructed directly by Mr. Voloshyn. A joint investigation team has been started involving the Metropolitan Police and forces from the countries those lawmakers represented in the European Parliament, Commander Murphy said.
He said that Mr. Farage, who also had led the right-wing U.K. Independence Party and the Brexit Party, and represented them in the European Parliament, was not among the politicians under investigation. Mr. Gill later became the leader of Reform U.K. in Wales, but left in May 2021 after failing to be elected to the Welsh parliament.
Speaking at Friday’s sentencing, Peter Wright, Mr. Gill’s defense lawyer, said that Mr. Farage was “never the subject of any proposition nor indeed of any agreement” relating to Mr. Gill’s pro-Russian activities.
Prosecutors said that Mr. Gill was paid at least £30,000, or about $40,000, for the eight instances of bribery he admitted, which related to two scripted speeches to the European Parliament and appearances on 112 Ukraine.
In several of the television appearances, Mr. Gill expressed support for Viktor Medvedchuk, a former Ukrainian politician who is close to Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, and now lives in Russia. Mr. Gill was paid to arrange and host a July 2019 presentation by Mr. Medvedchuk inside the European Parliament, prosecutors said.
The following day, Mr. Medvedchuk met with Mr. Putin in Russia, and hailed the European Parliament meeting as a success. An English transcript published by the Kremlin quoted Mr. Putin as saying the event was “very positive.”
Mr. Gill served in the European Parliament for UKIP between 2014 and 2018, when he joined Mr. Farage’s Brexit Party, and held his seat until the United Kingdom left the European Union on Jan. 31, 2020.
The police began their investigation in September 2021 after the F.B.I. alerted British authorities to evidence arising from a stop of Mr. Voloshyn at Washington’s Dulles Airport in July 2021 in which his phone was seized.
Mr. Gill was stopped at Manchester Airport on Sept. 31, 2021. He told the police he was traveling to Russia to “act as an observer” for elections to the Duma, Commander Murphy said.
Britain’s security minister, Dan Jarvis, said in a statement Friday that Mr. Gill had used his position “to advance the malign interests of Russia over those of the U.K. in exchange for money,” and accused him “a betrayal of our country, our people, and our national security.”
The case comes amid heightened concerns over Russian sabotage and espionage in Britain, following the imprisonment of a group who set fire to a Ukrainian-owned London warehouse on the orders of Russian intelligence, and a network paid to spy on journalists and critics of the Russian government.
The defense lawyer, Mr. Wright, said that Mr. Gill had come into contact with Mr. Voloshyn after receiving a “round robin email” sent to multiple lawmakers inviting them to attend World War II commemorations in Ukraine in May 2018. There, he met local opposition politicians who gave him a “different” perspective on the ongoing conflict with pro-Russian separatists.
Mr. Wright said Mr. Gill felt “deep shame” about his conduct, but the police said he had refused to answer any questions when interviewed.
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