Three charities that support private Jewish schools are among those being investigated by the regulator amid “serious concerns” over millions in cashed cheques.
An unannounced HMRC visit to a company in Hackney found 105 charities had cashed cheques worth £22 million with the firm between December 2021 and March 2023.
The Charity Commission announced today it has subsequently launched a “statutory class inquiry” into 10 of the charities.
They were “prioritised following an assessment of a range of factors, including the number of cheques issued” and their value of what was cashed.
Of the 10, three donate to private Jewish schools – the Beis Aharon Charitable Trust Limited, Friends of Beis Soroh Schneirer and Friends of Beis Chinuch Lebonos Trust.
They have been issued with “an immediate order to temporarily stop” them “from issuing cheques without [the commission’s] prior consent”
The commission added it will “investigate how trustees had oversight of what happened to funds exchanged for the cheques, and if this cash has been used properly to support what the charities were set up to do”.
It will also “seek to establish how trustees determined that these financial transactions were in their charity’s best interests”.
The charity watchdog “expects to extend the number of charities under investigation over time”. The scope of the inquiry “may also be extended if additional regulatory issues emerge”.
Schools Week approached all organisations with publicly-available contact details for comment.
Is there a particular reason you’re highlighting the fact that these are Jewish Schools?