One of UK’s biggest Jewish charities being investigated by Charity Commission

The Charity Commission has opened a new investigation into Chabad Lubavitch UK, a major UK Jewish charity.

In a statement published by the Commission, which serves as an independent regulator of charities in England and Wales, the body says that the charity has “failed to meet its legal obligation to file its annual accounting information to the Commission for the financial year ending 31 December 2015”.

As a result, the statement continues, “the charity has now persistently failed to file its accounting documents on time for 5 consecutive years – filing at least 300 days late for the past 4 years – and the trustee has demonstrated a repeated pattern of behaviour and continuing evidence of mismanagement in the administration of the charity”.

The investigation will examine “the extent to which the charity is complying with its legal duties in respect of the administration, governance and management”, including “the compliance with legal obligations for the preparation and filing of the charity’s accounting information”, as well as “the extent to which the charity has complied with previously issued regulatory guidance”.

The statement notes that “it is the Commission’s policy, after it has concluded an inquiry, to publish a report detailing what issues the inquiry looked at, what actions were undertaken as part of the inquiry and what the outcomes were”.

According to The Jewish Chronicle, Chabad Lubavitch UK is “one of the UK’s biggest Jewish charities”. In 2014, “the charity received nearly £8,750,000 in income, up by around £1 million from the previous year”. It has “a network of 26 affiliated Chabad Houses in communities and campuses around the country as well as schools and other educational and religious activities”.