Charity Commission finds ‘serious’ financial mismanagement in London church, bans trustees

The Charity Commission disqualified the individuals after they resigned as trustees of Kingdom life Ministries, holding them to account for financial mismanagement, governance failings, and non-compliance with the Commission.

In the regulator’s investigation into Kingdom Life Ministries, which was opened after repeated failures to file accounts, the Commission found that all trustees received unauthorised payments from the church between June 2013 and November 2018, totalling £456,853.

During an inspection of the charity’s records, investigators found that the three former trustees had decided their own weekly salary payments of £200, £200 and £90 respectively. These payments were made in breach of the church’s governing document, and continued even after formal regulatory advice instructing an end to these arrangements. A total of £28,971 was paid in the months following the inspection.

The former trustees claimed that other payments related to reimbursement of costs, but did not provide enough information to prove it. The Charity Commission said after being informed that the inquiry was closing, the trustees did submit invoices relating to construction work, international flights and video production, however analysis of the charity’s bank statements showed that the majority of payments made to the former trustees were round sums.

Bank records also…