Potentially up to 40 registered Irish charities are owed an estimated €70,000 by Pembroke Dynamic Internet Services which has gone into liquidation, according to an examination by the Charities Regulator of a list of charities provided by the liquidator to the company.
The Charities Regulator’s compliance unit have conducted a reconciliation exercise between the list (provided by the liquidator) of organisations, with outstanding balances, and the public Register of Charities. The list only contained the names of organisations and the financial sums outstanding.
“We have taken a prudent approach and have potentially identified around 40 Irish Registered charities in the listing,” Charities Regulator CEO John Farrelly said. “Their cumulative outstanding balances total around €70,000. However, we believe the actual number of Irish Registered Charities affected will be lower than the 40.”
The Charities Regulator is currently in the process of contacting these potentially affected charities to confirm the numbers and amounts involved.
The liquidator told the High Court on Friday (9 February) that more than 700 charities had been contacted as part of the investigation into the liquidation of the firm which provided online fundraising services. The liquidator said the firm had received donations of up to €3.8 million, but these donations had not been received by the charities.
“We are publishing details of our inquiries to date to provide some clarity to the Irish public about the scale of the impact which the issues at Pembroke Dynamic is having on registered Irish charities,” Mr Farrelly said.
“We would like to remind registered Irish charities of their obligation under section 59 of the Charities Act 2009 to notify the Charities Regulator in writing if they have reasonable grounds for believing that an offence under the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001 has been, or is being, committed,” he added.
For more information: email press@charitiesregulator.ie.
ENDS