Author Topic: Madeleine's Fund Accounts  (Read 16650 times)

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Redblossom

  • Guest
« Last Edit: January 09, 2014, 09:31:38 AM by Redblossom »

Redblossom

  • Guest
Re: Madeleine's Fund Accounts
« Reply #1 on: January 22, 2014, 01:55:52 PM »
Analysis of latest accounts


http://www.mccannfiles.com/id475.html

Offline Angelo222

Re: Madeleine's Fund Accounts
« Reply #2 on: January 27, 2014, 11:58:14 AM »
It appears income has dwindled to a trickle.  A lot to play for in Lisbon by the looks of it??
De troothe has the annoying habit of coming to the surface just when you least expect it!!

Je ne regrette rien!!

Offline Sherlock Holmes

Re: Madeleine's Fund Accounts
« Reply #3 on: January 31, 2014, 02:49:38 AM »
It appears income has dwindled to a trickle.  A lot to play for in Lisbon by the looks of it??

A very interesting time.

Let's hope that SY don't draw short straws, as funding for any further investigations is unlikely - from any source.

Redblossom

  • Guest
Re: Madeleine's Fund Accounts
« Reply #4 on: January 31, 2014, 12:14:30 PM »
A very interesting time.

Let's hope that SY don't draw short straws, as funding for any further investigations is unlikely - from any source.

What is going to be left to be investigated that seven sets of private investigators and three police forces had tackled? And who woud do it?


 >@@(*&)




Offline John

Re: Madeleine's Fund Accounts
« Reply #5 on: February 02, 2014, 05:23:57 PM »
What is going to be left to be investigated that seven sets of private investigators and three police forces had tackled? And who woud do it?


 >@@(*&)

The only time this case will be properly investigated is when Madeleine turns up.  Until then it is merely a case of SY going through the motions, send the odd letter and make the odd flying visit to Portugal.  Keeps the Press happy too.
A malicious prosecution for a crime which never existed. An exposé of egregious malfeasance by public officials.
Indeed, the truth never changes with the passage of time.

Offline faithlilly

Re: Madeleine's Fund Accounts
« Reply #6 on: February 05, 2016, 10:37:04 PM »


FEB
3
THE FUND REVISITED


Guest Enid O'Dowd has revised and extended her analysis of the Fund accounts. This is  a much-needed review - many thanks to Enid O'Dowd
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Setting up of the Fund Revisited


 

'from the outset everyone agreed that, despite the costs involved, it (the Fund) must be run to the highest standards of transparency'

 

-Dr Kate McCann in her book madeleine

 

In 2012 I published a report http://www.mccannfiles.com/id405.html about the background to the incorporation of the limited company Madeleine’s Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned just 11 days after she went missing.

 

My report upset an unknown McCann supporter so much that he or she complained to my professional body, the ICEAW (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales).

 

This happened in November 2012 but I only learned of it recently when by chance I came across a post which the person concerned had made on the Internet.

 

I was never contacted as the complaint did not meet the standards required by the ICEAW to warrant asking to hear my side of the story. The ICEAW reply to the complainant included the sentence:

 

 ‘Mrs O'Dowd is entitled to her opinions and views and freedom of speech’.

 

Exactly!

 

I imagine that this vexatious complaint caused some amusement at the ICEAW, and, on a more positive note, will have brought my report on the Fund to the attention of the staff at the ICEAW who may have discussed it with family and friends.   

 

At the time I published the first report on the Fund, I did not understand why the situation warranted a limited company set up with such speed.  I still don’t understand this four years later, having reviewed the subsequent audited accounts now available.

The Fund Timeline

 
 2007
 
 
Event
 
Comment
 
Thursday  10pm
May  3
 
 
 
Madeleine reported missing
 
 
Weekend Friday
May 11 - Sunday May 13
 
Unnamed barrister and paralegal (from International Family Law Group  - IFLG) meet with McCanns in Portugal
 
 
Decision taken to set up limited company (the Fund).
 
Monday May 14
 
McCanns set launch date for  the Fund
 
Not clear when on Monday the launch date was set. Not clear why they did not get company incorporated and then set media launch date.
 
Monday afternoon May 14
 
Solicitors Bates Wells and Braithwaite (BWB)asked to incorporate the new company
 
 
BWB inform Charity Commission in email on Monday evening May 14 that launch of new company set for May 16.
 
Monday  afternoon May 14- lunchtime Tuesday May 15
 
Communications between BWB  and Charity Commission re possible charity status for the company yet to be incorporated
 
 
 
 
Tuesday afternoon May 15
 
The Fund incorporated after charity negotiations dropped.
 
Documents obtained under FOI show charity status might have been possible with a little compromise
 
 
Wednesday May 16
 
Press launch of the Fund with celebrity guest Martin Johnson
 
 
Apparently not having to change the date of a press launch was more important than getting charity status
 
 
Thursday May 17
 
 
Fund Bank account opened
 
 
Thursday May 17
 
Auditors to the Fund appointed
 
The McCanns were in Portugal and could not have actually met the auditors. Why the rush to appoint them so quickly?
 
Friday May 18
 
BWB apply for British and EU trademarks and given ref: 245601
 
 
This protects fundraising, internet and print promotions. Why the rush as before?

 

 

 

According to the book madeleine, charity experts BWB were hired on the advice of the paralegal. It is surprising that Kate did not let them have a day or two more to explore charity status. This slight delay would not have reduced the chances of finding Madeleine, alive or dead. And it is also surprising that the McCanns have apparently not revisited the charity status issue.

In Chapter 9 of madeleine Kate describes her activities on May 14; she does not mention any dealings with BWB, nor does she mention dealing with the paralegal or anyone else at IFLG. There must have been emails and phone calls that day from her advisors. She just states that charity status would not be forthcoming as it was deemed that the 'public benefit' test would not be met, and adds that it (the Fund) 'was set up with great care and due diligence by experts in their field.'

It would be more accurate to state it was set up with great haste and with no apparent reason for that haste.

Rather than describing the busy day she must have had dealing with her lawyers, and why she made the decision to proceed with incorporation and abandon the negotiations for charity status, she talks of going for a run, her first since Madeleine went missing.


She doesn’t mention the cost of getting a top legal firm to set up a limited company. The donations coming in were for finding Madeleine and not for lawyers. The legal pair would presumably have informed her of the ongoing compliance costs of operating a limited company such as the audit fee. The audit fees for the accounts from commencement to March 2014 total £50,085. The audit fee for the year ended 31 March 2015 is not known.




The Audited Accounts

 

 

When the first set of audited accounts for the period from 15 May 2007 to

31 March 2008 became available at Companies House, much information was provided but it raised many issues, one of which was that apparently only 13% of expenditure had gone on searching for Madeleine.

 

The Fund directors had two choices:

to answer questions about the accounts both from the media and from members of the public, to put financial information on the official website, and to provide clearer accounts in future.
 
or
 
to ignore the questions and reduce the information provided in subsequent accounts, in the hope of reducing or eliminating questions, while adhering to statutory disclosure requirements.

 

 

They went for the latter option. Subsequent accounts provided much less information but still raised questions! The accounts for the most recent year available, the year ended 31 March 2015, provide even less information than in previous years which is why the my summary of accounting results 2007-2015 later in this article contains (?) in the 2015 column.

 

It is quite reasonable that an ordinary trading company would not reveal more information than legally required in its filed accounts because some information could be commercially sensitive and of use to a trade competitor. However, this argument would not apply to a company such as Madeleine's Fund where it would logically be to its advantage for the public to see where the money was going.

 

I contacted the company auditors who passed my questions on the accounts to Clarence Mitchell, their PR spokesman. I received the following response:

 

‘I have now been authorised to issue the following brief statement from Madeleine's Fund in response to your approach:

"Madeleine's Fund - Leaving No Stone Unturned Limited" fulfils all of its legal requirements through the filing and public declaration of all the information that is legally required of it. It exists to support the search for Madeleine and remains entirely dedicated to finding her through everything that it does, fully in line with its published objectives."

I appreciate that this does not directly address your specific questions but this is all that the Fund wishes, or needs, to state at present. I hope it is helpful nonetheless.

Kind regards,

Clarence’

 

 

Filing of the Fund’s Accounts

 


Good practice demands the filing of accounts as soon as practical after the accounting year end before the information becomes to some extent irrelevant.  Prompt filing is necessary for genuine ‘transparency.’ Prompt filing costs nothing but even if it did, the commitment in madeleine promised transparency ‘despite the costs involved.’

 

The audited accounts were filed as below:

 

 

 

Accounts year ending
Date Accounts approved by Board
Statutory deadline for filing
Date Accounts filed
 
31.3.2008
 
12.11.2008
 
31.01.2009
 
23.01.2009
31.3.2009
06.01.2010
31.01.2010
27.01.2010
31.3.2010
09.11.2010
31.01.2011
4.12.2010
31.3.2011
22.12.2011
31.12.2011
30.12.2011
31.3.2012
21.12.2012
31.12.2012
Filed after deadline Fined £150
 
31.3.2013
20.12.2013
31.12.2013
31.12.2013
 
31.3.2014
16.12.2014
31.12.2014
31.12.2014
 
31.3.2015
18.12.2015
31.12.2015
23.12.2015
 

 

The statutory filing date was 10 months after the accounting year end to 2010 but was changed to 9 months from 2011

 

 

Summary of Audited Accounts 2007 – 2015

 

 

 

 

Madeleine's Fund
Audited accounts from commencement
 
Total
31.3.2015
31.3.2014
31.3.2013
31.3.2012
31.3.2011
31.3.2010
31.3.2009
31.3.2008
 
Income
4,233,899
?
421,264
70,250
856,393
177,534
233,099
629,181
1,846,178
Interest receivable
56,213
?
258
323
149
101
373
21,585
33,424
4,290,112
?
421,522
70,573
856,542
177,635
233,472
650,766
1,879,602
 
Merchandise/Campaign Costs
3,212,141
?
63,638
115,109
476,813
487,193
421,236
974,786
673,366
Admin. Expenses
299,234
?
21,005
23,910
24,909
26,930
29,868
30,865
141,747
3,511,375
?
84,643
139,019
501,722
514,123
451,104
1,005,651
815,113
 
Oper. Surplus/Deficit
778,737
?
336,879
-68,446
354,820
-336,488
-217,632
-354,885
1,064,489
 
Taxation
-25,681
?
0
9,756
-5,128
-8,371
-2,598
-6,878
-12,462
 
Surplus/deficit for  year
753,056
?
336,879
-58,690
349,692
-344,859
-220,230
-361,763
1,052,027
 
 
 
Audit
50,085
?
5,900
6,300
6,300
6,300
6,169
5,750
13,366
Balance Sheets
Cash at bank
763,772
765,363
441,169
528,267
173,321
516,968
719,723
572,344
Debtors
0
0
4,523
1,778
4,760
3,718
19,795
585,369
Creditors
17,620
12,307
29,515
55,178
52,906
50,652
49,254
105,686
746,152
753,056
416,177
474,867
125,175
470,034
690,264
1,052,027
Unrestricted Funds
185,507
174,966
197,240
158,953
0
0
0
0
Restricted Funds
560,645
578,090
218,937
315,914
0
0
0
0
Accumulated Reserves
 
470,034
690,264
1,052,027
0
Income and Expenditure Account
-344,859
-220,230
-361,763
1,052,027
746,152
753,056
416,177
474,867
125,175
470,034
690,264
1,052,027
 
Note 2
Note 1
Note 1: The debtors figure includes £563,152 for donations committed but not received at 31.3.2008
Note 2:  There was a change of accounting policy in 2012; money available was divided as restricted and unrestricted funds



















All we can see from the 2015 accounts is that there was £763,772 in
the bank at the year end, a figure similar to the cash at bank in the
previous year and that there were creditors of £17,620 leaving the
company net worth just under £750,000 as at 31 March 2015.
 
 
The Fund now


 

So, close to nine years after the Fund was incorporated, and given the
commitment in madeleine to transparency, whatever it cost, we have -
 
·         No financial information on the official website
 
AND
 
·         audited accounts which tell us, in effect, nothing
 
 
What is the reason for the reluctance to give financial information?



The website still requests donations from the public, one that is becoming
increasingly suspicious of charities and not for profit organisations which
request support yet do not provide clear information as to why they need
money and what it is spent on.
 
The Fund’s raison d’être and its income and expenditures remain a mystery.
 
Enid O’Dowd FCA
www.enidodowd.com
 
1 February 2016
Brietta posted on 10/04/2022 “But whether or not that is the reason behind the delay I am certain that Brueckner's trial is going to take place.”

Let’s count the months, shall we?

Offline G-Unit

Re: Madeleine's Fund Accounts
« Reply #7 on: February 05, 2016, 11:01:33 PM »
My report upset an unknown McCann supporter so much that he or she complained to my professional body, the ICEAW (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales).

This happened in November 2012 but I only learned of it recently when by chance I came across a post which the person concerned had made on the Internet.

 I was never contacted as the complaint did not meet the standards required by the ICEAW to warrant asking to hear my side of the story. The ICEAW reply to the complainant included the sentence:
‘Mrs O'Dowd is entitled to her opinions and views and freedom of speech’.
Quote

Those who disagree or criticise must be silenced, it seems. Mrs O'Dowd is more qualified than most to examine the accounts and give her opinion on their promised transparency.


 

 
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Offline mercury

Re: Madeleine's Fund Accounts
« Reply #8 on: February 05, 2016, 11:29:48 PM »
Someone complained to the professisonal body about a forensic analysis of accounts. What did they complain about? Forensic Accuracy?

 @)(++(*

How sad. It seems the body sent them away with a flea in their ear....forensically just!

Offline faithlilly

Re: Madeleine's Fund Accounts
« Reply #9 on: February 01, 2018, 12:18:01 AM »
Well it would appear we've again hit the deadline for the filing of the fund accounts.
Brietta posted on 10/04/2022 “But whether or not that is the reason behind the delay I am certain that Brueckner's trial is going to take place.”

Let’s count the months, shall we?

Offline Alice Purjorick

Re: Madeleine's Fund Accounts
« Reply #10 on: February 01, 2018, 08:09:25 PM »
Well it would appear we've again hit the deadline for the filing of the fund accounts.
Indeed and shown on Companies House website as "Overdue"
"Navigating the difference between weird but normal grief and truly suspicious behaviour is the key for any detective worth his salt.". ….Sarah Bailey