Crypto billionaire pardoned by Trump gives £20m to science

Ben Ben Delo, a British billionaire and co-founder of the BitMex cryptocurrency trading platform, has promised £20 million to the London Institute for Mathematical Sciences (LIMS)—a private academic research institute funded wholly by grants and gifts.

It is one of the biggest single donations ever made to a research institution other than Oxford or Cambridge.

In February 2022, Delo pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act in the US by failing to operate an adequate “know-your-customer” procedure for BitMex.

In June that year, Delo was given 30 months’ probation and fined $10 million in New York after he was found to have breached anti-money-laundering laws. He had also been ordered to pay a $10 million civil penalty as part of the settlement of a complaint by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. By agreement, the fine was discounted by the amount paid to the CFTC, reducing it to zero.

The Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange was founded in 2014 and became one of the largest in the world. However, American prosecutors said that the exchange had failed to cater for an increase in US customers and that they were not properly screened, as the law required.

Trump pardoned Delo, Arthur Hayes and Samuel Reed, the co-founders, as well as as BitMex’s former head of business development, Gregory Dwyer, in March last year.

Delo, 42, who was born in Sheffield, describes himself on his website as a fintech innovator, entrepreneur, mathematician and philanthropist. He gives substantial donations to causes including maths education, research, academic freedom and neurodiversity.

He was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome—now classified as autism spectrum disorder—at the age of 11 after moving between a succession of primary schools, before flourishing with structured support at a state secondary school and graduating from Oxford University with a double first-class honours in maths and computer science.

Aside from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, only three UK higher education institutions have ever received private gifts larger than £20 million, according to Times Higher Education.

LIMS was founded in 2011 by the American physicist Thomas Fink and is based in the Royal Institution in Mayfair, occupying the rooms that previously housed the chemist Michael Faraday. It has reportedly been one of the largest sponsors of exiled Russian and Ukrainian physicists and now is home to several leading US researchers.

His gift launches a fundraising drive with the aim of raising £60 million for an endowment.

Delo told Times Higher: “I would like to see LIMS winning Fields medals and Nobel prizes. They are already doing some world-class things and I want to help.

“They are attracting top researchers but not subjecting them to teaching and administrative duties.

“They are also approaching research in an innovative way—even offering coaching on research. In the same way that far-sighted coaches have changed sport, LIMS can revolutionise academia.”.

He criticised what he called the UK’s “lacklustre and inconsistent approach to scientific funding”.

Fink, who runs LIMS, said: “We’ve seen a lot of interest in what we do from technology founders and billionaires who understand the transformative power of basic research. They’re looking for appropriate ways to fund basic science.

“We are focused on researchers working full time on research—a model which hasn’t been seen in the UK for some time, with almost all research done by universities. Tech founders are very interested in our case for a more innovative model for supporting research.”

Delo has previously given £5 million to Worcester College, Oxford and has made significant contributions to the Free Speech Union, founded by Lord Young of Acton, and the Committee for Academic Freedom. Delo also made a £25 million donation to the Sheila Coates Foundation, a charity he founded in 2020 to support young people with autism.

In 2019, he signed the Giving Pledge created by Bill Gates, his then-wife Melinda French Gates and Warren Buffett, which has led to hundreds of the world’s wealthiest people promising to give away at least half of their fortunes during their lifetimes.

Nicola Woolcock is the education editor of The Times.