A prestigious private school that is more than £3million in debt has partnered with a radical cryptocurrency fanatic who shuns modern democracy and believes in ‘unschooling’ and tax avoidance.

Parents were baffled after being told that Lomond School in Helensburgh has entered a ‘long-term partnership’ with Scholarium, a Swiss-based organisation that advocates for ‘Bitcoin citadels’, run by Iranian-Austrian lecturer Rahim Taghizadegan.

It is the latest deal to be struck by bosses at the school near Dumbarton after three previous deals with educational organisations fell apart, including one with the QED Schools Group signed just six months ago. The institution’s annual accounts are three months overdue, with an existing £3.5million debt secured against school assets.

One parent told The Mail on Sunday: 'There’s a huge amount of concern about this. It’s the lack of transparency, the lack of explanation about what exactly this partnership entails.

‘Then there are the extreme views of the Scholarium founder which we weren’t aware of until we started researching him – after the deal had already been done.’

Lomond School, which charges up to £48,000 a year and caters for 300 pupils from age three to 18, told parents of the deal last week.

A letter stated: ‘Our decision not to proceed with the acquisition by QED Schools Group enabled us to explore alternative opportunities that would provide stability and the potential for future growth.

‘I can now confirm that Lomond School has entered a long-term partnership with Scholarium which is taking on responsibility for securing the school’s future.’

The letter claims Scholarium is ‘dedicated to developing innovative approaches to learning’ while ‘its founder, the economist and author Rahim Taghizadegan, has taught at universities across Europe’.

Mr Taghizadegan is the president of the Free Cities Foundation, director of the Bitcoin Association Switzerland and is CEO of an artificial intelligence firm Krin. He has also set up Citadel Garden, a company which aims to build a network of villages to allow so-called ‘Bitcoiner families’ to live there and avoid paying taxes by acting as travelling tourists, moving from place to place every three months.

He has appeared on dozens of podcasts and conferences linked to cryptocurrency and alternative lifestyles where he has discussed unschooling – the idea that children shouldn’t be taught in a conventional school setting or in a conventional way – and his deep scepticism of modern politics and European democracy.

Mr Taghizadegan is a supporter of ‘flag theory’ – a financial management technique used by the super-rich to legally avoid paying taxes by basing their businesses, banking, and residential status in different countries.

Asked if those using flag theory would avoid paying taxes, he said: ‘Yes, it’s possible.’

The lecturer has referenced controversial Austrian economist Hermann Hoppe as one of his mentors.

Mr Hoppe drew criticism after releasing a book which advocated for gay people to be ‘removed from society… to maintain a libertarian order’. Hoppe has also invited white supremacists to speak at one of his conferences.

Another parent of a child at Lomond School said: ‘We worry about the lack of transparency and, in this case, the Bitcoin and anti-democracy aspect. It seems as though the school is rushing in feet first through abject desperation.

‘Surely parents are entitled to ask what due diligence has been undertaken before an organisation founded by someone with such an unconventional political and economic philosophy is given a role in “securing the future” of a British independent school educating children from nursery age upwards?’

When contacted Mr Taghizadegan said he had ‘no hidden ideological or curricular agenda’ for the school’.

He also claimed the school was on the brink of closure and said: ‘Scholarium arranged substantial six-figure rescue funding under intense time pressure.

‘Without my intervention, the school would have closed.’ But just five hours later, he retracted the claims and said: ‘My statement that the school would have closed without my intervention was an unsubstantiated overstatement.

‘There was no personal six-figure financial offer from me.’

Regarding his political views, he said: ‘I do not reject democracy. My criticism is directed principally at EU centralism and top-down institutions over which citizens have little meaningful control.

'Hans-Hermann Hoppe is among the thinkers from whom I have learned. I do not adopt his positions wholesale and disagree with many of them.’

Lomond School was contacted for comment.