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A host of transactions involving Reform UK’s most senior figures and donations to the party caused bankers to report potential money-laundering concerns to the National Crime Agency, a Guardian investigation has found.

On Tuesday, the Guardian revealed that the undisclosed £5m gift provided to the Reform leader, Nigel Farage, by a cryptocurrency billionaire shortly before the 2024 general election was reported to the NCA.

It can now be revealed that, separately, banking staff judged that transfers of funds between Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader, a major donor, Fiona Cottrell, and the senior party figure and convicted fraudster George Cottrell, required further investigation, according to finance industry sources.

Suspicious activity reports (SARs) raised by bankers were passed to the NCA for examination.

Tice, via lawyers, threatened to injunct the Guardian to stop it publishing these details.

Without responding to any of the questions put to him, Tice then appears to have shared the allegations contained in the Guardian’s requests for comment with the Telegraph, which wrote them up without credit or contact ahead of publication.

The disclosures have come from a Guardian investigation in which a number of finance industry sources have provided information they believe raises questions over the funding of Reform UK.

Sources have told the Guardian that despite explanations provided by senior figures involved with Reform UK regarding the source or purpose of the funds, bankers still considered it necessary to file SARs.

The Guardian understands finance industry figures have raised at least four SARs relating to concerns about transactions involving senior figures in Reform:

• One relates to a £1m donation made to Britain Means Business, a fundraising organisation for Reform UK, before the last general election. Half of the £1m was then transferred by Tice, as director of the company, to Reform UK. Renamed from Leave Means Leave, Britain Means Business is a company that is used to help fund Reform. The £1m seemingly came from the aristocrat and Reform UK donor Fiona Cottrell. In this instance, the Guardian understands bank staff were not satisfied that the funds had ultimately come from her. The NCA has sought help from a foreign partner agency to trace the original source of the funds.

• Two other SARs relate to a loan from George Cottrell to Tice. The loan was made shortly before Tice finalised a property purchase and made a party donation, and was not repaid until after those two transactions were completed, according to sources. George Cottrell is the son of Fiona Cottrell, and is a convicted fraudster, former deputy treasurer of Ukip and close associate of Farage.

• A fourth relates to the £5m gift from the Thailand-based businessman Christopher Harborne to Farage, which was first revealed by the Guardian in April.

Regulated individuals in some sectors, such as accountants, bankers, real estate agents and solicitors, have a legal obligation to submit SARs to the NCA if they have “knowledge or suspicion of money laundering”. There are rules designed to ensure that SARs are sufficiently detailed for the authorities to be able to investigate them.

SARs are not the same as crime reports or proof of wrongdoing, and are usually regarded as markers for law enforcement agencies to take a more rigorous look and potentially investigate.

The money behind Farage and Reform UK is under acute political and public scrutiny. He is being investigated by the parliamentary standards watchdog over the £5m gift, which Farage has variously described as being needed to pay for lifetime security, and also as a reward for “getting Brexit done”. On Tuesday, he resigned from his Clacton seat to trigger a byelection, in which he will stand. However, this move is likely to only pause, rather than close, the investigation and any potential reprimand.

The prime minister, Keir Starmer, and the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, have led cross-party calls for Farage to “come clean” over his financial affairs.

The filing of the SARs raises questions about whether Electoral Commission rules and the MPs’ code of conduct are being adhered to by Reform, and whether the rules are fit for purpose if, as critics of Farage have suggested, Reform has blurred the boundaries of personal and political finance.

Sources said they spoke to the Guardian about the transactions because they believed it was in the public interest. They said the electorate needed to be able to judge whether a major political party had been fully transparent about its finances.

They also said they believed the public should know that bankers and law enforcement felt it was necessary to investigate whether money laundering may have been involved in flows of money. And they raised concerns that any potential NCA investigation could take years to conclude because of the agency’s strapped resources, potentially meaning it would not be sufficiently thorough or complete in time for the next general election, due by July 2029.

Several of the senior figures flagged in the reports are known in the industry as politically exposed persons, according to sources. This means they are treated by banks as being at higher risk for bribery, corruption and other illicit activity. As a result, they are subject to what is termed enhanced due diligence, meaning their transactions and activities are given closer scrutiny by the finance industry.

Enhanced due diligence does not automatically lead to SARs on transactions. Instead, SARs are only triggered if there are specific concerns about money-laundering activity that are believed to merit NCA investigation.

An NCA spokesperson said: “The NCA does not confirm or deny the receipt of SARs, nor comment on how any SAR is used. SARs are confidential and breaching that confidentiality risks committing a tipping-off offence under the Proceeds of Crime Act.”

Reform UK declined to comment. Fiona Cottrell has not responded to attempts to contact her. George Cottrell’s lawyers refused to respond to detailed questions.

In correspondence with the Guardian, Harborne’s lawyers have claimed Farage received the £5m gift on 5 April 2024. They did not provide a substantive response to detailed questions about the gift and an SAR to the NCA. Instead they asked for a copy of any documents in the Guardian’s possession.