Charity Commission redistributes £196,000 in funds “likely to have been used as non-charitable expenditure”
Howard Lake | 15 December 2020 | News
Earlier today the Charity Commission announced it was redistributing almost £200,000 from a pair who had raised the money but could not show how all funds were used.
Mr Mohammed Hasnath and Ms Ruksana Ali operated two online fundraising platforms, claiming to be raising money for Rohingya refugees. Whilst they never registered the fund as a charity, its stated purpose made it charitable under the law.
In 2018, the Commission uncovered the fund and that its trustees were asking for donations to their personal bank accounts. Information on the platforms showed over £200,000 had been donated to the fund.
Today, the Commission reported the outcome of its statutory inquiry into the case, finding:
- there were no governance or financial controls in place to protect and apply the funds raised
- funds had been transferred into six personal bank accounts and a PayPal account, mixing it with personal money already in these accounts
- £68,748.81 of charitable funds could not be properly accounted for and was likely to have been used as non-charitable private expenditure by the former trustees
- there was insufficient evidence of activity by the charitable fund.
The Commission has removed both trustees from the fund and disqualified them from acting as trustees or holding a senior management function at a charity.
Steve Roake, Head of Compliance, Visits and Inspections at the Charity Commission, said: “Charities exist to improve lives and strengthen society, so it is vital that trustees fulfil their responsibility to act in the best interests of their charity at all times. Instead, this inquiry uncovered misconduct by these trustees who likely allowed funds to go astray and demonstrated a disregard for the standards and behaviours expected of them. It’s right we’ve removed these individuals from acting as trustees.”
“We’re glad we’ve been able to use our powers to protect the remaining funds and ensure this money has now safely reached the cause for which it was intended.”Advertisement
The Commission has transferred the remaining £196,528.58 raised by the fund to two registered charities that support Rohingya refugees.
MORE:
- Charity Commission unveils new version of online charity register (4 September 2020)
- Charities with inactive funds called to join Revitalising Trusts programme (1 September 2020)
- Charity Commission withdraws criticised Covid-19 guidance (16 March 2020)
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.