Decision

Charity Inquiry: The Kingdom Church GB

Published 25 January 2024

Applies to England and Wales

The Charity

The Kingdom Church GB (‘the Charity’) was registered with the Commission on 10 August 2010. It was governed by a Memorandum and Articles of Association incorporated on 14 August 2009. The Charity’s objects were:

‘to advance the Christian faith through but not exclusively the provision of services, evangelism, and Christian religious education; to advance other such charitable purposes as are beneficial to the community’

An Interim Manager was appointed to the Charity on the 15 February 2021 and on 28 October 2022, following review of the Interim Manager’s findings, the Commission made an Order to direct the Interim Manager to wind up and dissolve the Charity. On 21 February 2023, the Charity was dissolved as recorded on Companies House Register and removed from the Register of Charities (the ‘Register’). The Charity’s entry can be found on the Register.

Background and Issues under Investigation

In April 2020, the Commission opened a Regulatory Compliance case following media reports that alleged the Charity was selling an oil product falsely advertised as being a protection against coronavirus. At that time, there were three trustees recorded on Companies House of which two, Bishop Climate Wiseman and Dr. Jennifer Irungu, were husband and wife, which raised concerns about the trustees’ ability to manage conflicts of interest. A review of the Charity’s finances also identified serious regulatory concerns about the accuracy of the information provided to the Commission regarding the Charity’s income and expenditure.

On 7 August 2020, the Commission opened a statutory inquiry under section 46 of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the Act’) to investigate:

• the extent to which the trustees are complying with their legal duties in respect of the administration, governance and management of the Charity, and particularly their financial accounting responsibilities
• the extent to which the trustees responsibly managed the Charity’s resources and financial affairs, and particularly how they have managed conflicts of interest

The inquiry closed with the publication of this report.

Findings

The inquiry identified significant shortcomings within the Charity’s management, administration and operation with the trustees failing to give adequate assurances and addressing the issues identified.  Therefore, on 15 February 2021, the Commission appointed an Interim Manager under section 76(3)(g) of the Act to the inclusion of the trustees. The Interim Manager was charged with conducting a review of the Charity’s governance, administration, financial processes, structures, and resources. The trustees remained fully responsible for the day-to-day management and administration of the Charity. On review of the Interim Manager’s findings and following further engagement with the trustees, the Inquiry determined the Charity should be wound up. 

Trustee governance and management of the Charity

The inquiry established that the trustees had never held trustee meetings, and that Bishop Climate Wiseman made all the decisions in regard to the operation of the Charity. The trustees were unable to provide any meeting minutes, records of decision making, or management accounts for the Charity prior to the inquiry opening. There was a lack of clarity in the Charity’s operations and little evidence of public benefit.

The inquiry found that the other trustees did not take part in decision making, allowing Bishop Climate Wiseman to make unilateral decisions about the Charity and its operations. This was a key issue in the governance failures in the Charity.

Trustee financial accounting

The inquiry established that the accounts submitted to the Commission for financial years ending 31 December 2018, 2019, and 2020 were not an accurate representation of the Charity’s finances. Therefore, these accounts were removed from the Register and the trustees were required to resubmit corrected accounts, which they failed to do. The Charity also failed to submit accounts for financial year ending 31 December 2021.

The inquiry identified that the trustees had failed to take the professional advice of their own independent examiner in March and December 2018 to ensure the Charity’s finances and the records of its income and expenditure were accurately managed, maintained and submitted as required by law.

As a result, the trustees had failed to keep sufficient financial records to ensure that the Charity’s funds could be properly accounted for.

Trustee management of Charity’s resources and conflicts of interest

Accounts submitted for the Charity to the Commission between 2015 and 2017 identified two subsidiary companies registered in Scotland. Bishop Climate Wiseman and his wife Dr. Jennifer Irungu were the directors of these companies, and another trustee, Rev. Edward Nsubuga, was the secretary. The inquiry established that the Scottish companies were not, nor ever had been, subsidiaries of the Charity, and were in fact private business interests.

The trustees confirmed that the Charity had not held a bank account since June 2018, instead the bank accounts held in the names of the two Scottish companies had been used since June 2018 for all transactions relating to the Charity. This meant there was a lack of financial separation between the Charity and the private business ventures of the trustees.

The inquiry also found that the Charity’s website and social media were used interchangeably with the private business interests of two of the trustees, husband and wife Bishop Climate Wiseman and Dr. Jennifer Irungu. This website and the social media posts included a facility for the public to donate, which meant it was unclear to the public the destination of their donation.

By conflating charitable funds with the funds of private companies by using one bank account, not managing conflicts of interest, and merging the Charity’s websites and social media; the trustees exposed charitable funds to the risk of misapplication and misappropriation.

Trustee fraud conviction

Southwark Council Trading Standards conducted an investigation into media reports that the Charity was selling an oil which allegedly would cure and protect against the Covid-19 virus. There was no scientific basis for these claims. Bishop Climate Wiseman, operating from the Charity’s premises and using a website linked to the Charity, advertised the products on behalf of his private business interests. On 9 December 2022 at Inner London Crown Court, Bishop Climate Wiseman was found guilty of fraud and was later sentenced to 1 year imprisonment which was suspended for 2 years and ordered to perform 130 hours unpaid work.  He was also ordered to pay £60,072 in costs. Subsequently, Bishop Climate Wiseman appealed his conviction. However, on 29 November 2023, the Court of Appeal ruled that it was “not persuaded that the conviction was unsafe” and his appeal was dismissed.”

Conclusion

The Commission concluded that there had been serious misconduct and/or mismanagement in the administration of the Charity by the trustees through a failure to manage conflicts of interest, poor financial controls and management, failure to keep accurate charity records, and bringing the Charity into disrepute through the unilateral actions of one trustee, Bishop Climate Wiseman.

The Commission also concluded that in failing to keep adequate accounting records, the trustees were in breach of their legal obligations under section 386 of the Companies Act 2006 which states that every Company must keep adequate accounting records. The trustees were also in breach of their statutory duties within section 162 of the Act.

The Commission concluded that the trustees had failed to protect their Charity’s reputation. They exposed the Charity’s reputation to undue risk by allowing the Charity to be linked to Bishop Climate Wiseman’s private business interests which included using the website linked to the Charity to sell an oil alleged to protect against Covid in the midst of a worldwide pandemic.

Regulatory Action Taken

During the inquiry, the Commission used its powers under s47 of the Act on multiple occasions to obtain information.

The Commission exercised its powers under section 181A of the Act to disqualify the following trustees from being a charity trustee and/or trustee for a charity and from holding an office or employment with senior management functions in charities generally:

• on 19 June 2023 Bishop Climate Wiseman was disqualified for a period of 15 years; Dr. Jennifer Irungu was disqualified for 10 years and Rev. Edward Nsubuga was disqualified for 8 years
• on 10 July 2023 Rev. Pauline Waweru was disqualified for a period of 6 years
• on 4 August 2023 Joyce Riches King and Jennifer Divine Change were disqualified for a period of 5 years

Interim Manager Appointment

On 15 February 2021, the Commission made an Order under section 76(3)(g) of the Act to appoint an Interim Manager to the inclusion of the trustees. The purpose of the appointment was to conduct a review of the Charity’s governance, administration and financial processes, structures and resources including the administration of the subsidiary organisations and to make recommendations on the viability of the Charity. The appointment was indemnified by the Commission and charged on a fixed fee basis of £20,000 including VAT.

On 28 October 2022, following a review of the Interim Manager’s findings, the Commission made an Order under section 84B of the Act for the Charity to be wound up.

Issues for the wider sector

Trustees are jointly and equally responsible for the management of their charity. They must ensure that their charity has an effective trustee body to control and administer the charity in accordance with a charity’s own governing document, charity law and Commission guidance. All trustees are equally responsible for the decision making in the charity. The Commissions guidance The essential trustee clearly sets out the key duties for trustees and is available on GOV.UK.

Trustees have a legal duty to act only in the best interests of their charity and for ensuring its funds are used properly for legitimate charitable purposes. Conflicts of interest should be clearly identified and recording in the charity’s records. Trustees should have in place policies and procedures to identify and manage any such conflicts of interest. Further guidance and advice on conflicts of interest can be found on GOV.UK.

Trustees must ensure that their charity has adequate financial and administrative controls in place, and that charitable funds are applied in line with their charity’s objects. The Commission has produced guidance to assist trustees in managing their charity’s finances on GOV.UK.