from Third Sector (U.K.):

Charity Commission tells Jewish charity to appoint at least one ‘fully independent’ trustee

The Charity Commission has told a charity that supports Jewish organisations that it must appoint at least one “fully independent and unconflicted” trustee.

The regulator opened a statutory inquiry in July 2012 into Mayfair Charities Ltd, which registered with the commission in 1968 and works to support Jewish organisations in the UK and abroad.

A report on the commission’s findings says that, after scrutinising the charity’s 2010 accounts, the regulator had concerns about loans made to companies connected with the charity and its trustees.

The trustees of the charity, which had an income of £12.5m and expenditure of £4m in the year ending March 2012, are named in the report as Mr D Davis and two brothers, Benzion Shalom Eliezer Freshwater and Solomon Israel Freshwater.