The Sodje Sports Foundation has been accused of exploiting the goodwill of its supporters after three people were convicted of defrauding the charity’s donors.
Brothers Efe Sodje, Bright Sodje and Stephen Sodje were found guilty of siphoning off more than £60,000 from the foundation between 2011 and 2014, after an investigation by the National Crime Agency.
The Sodje Sports Foundation was registered as a company in April 2008 and then as a charity in March 2010. It committed to using sport to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds in the UK and overseas. Efe and Stephen Sodje were both professional footballers in England during the 1990s and 2000s, while Bright Sodje was a professional rugby player.
Bright Sodje was a trustee from 2010 to 2013. Stephen Sodje was a registered contact for the foundation from 2013 until it was removed from the charity register two years later.
The Charity Commission first opened a compliance case into the charity in 2014.
All three brothers were jailed at the conclusion of a court case in September 2017. Reporting restrictions on the case were lifted yesterday.
The last set of accounts submitted to Companies House in April 2012 show that the Sodje Sports Foundation spent just over £4,000 that year on sports and charitable activities. The court heard that the amount of money transferred from the charity to the family “increased dramatically” in 2013, after a local businessman and the local MP had left the trustee board.
‘Exploited donors and supporters’
Tracy Howarth, the head of regulatory compliance at the Charity Commission, said: “The public rightly expect those running charities to be motivated solely by a desire to further their charity’s purpose, and to behave in ways that inspire trust in their charity and charitable endeavour more widely.
“The individuals convicted here did the opposite: they misused their privileged position to exploit donors and supporters, and their financial gain came at the expense of the children and causes the charity was supposed to support, and of the trust and goodwill that donors and supporters place in those responsible for charity.
Howarth also warned that “the deliberate, wilful and cynical abuse of charity for private financial gain will be investigated – and will not go unpunished”.
'Knowingly defrauding charity donors'
The National Crime Agency said they defrauded donors by at least £63,000, but are unsure of the exact figure because there are no records for cash donations made a charity events.
At least £34,000 was paid into the perosnal accounts of the Sodjes.
Chris Farrimond, the deputy director of the National Crime Agency, said: “Bright, Efe and Stephen Sodje promoted themselves as generous, community-minded, figures when they were knowingly defrauding people who thought they were helping deprived children in Nigeria.
“NCA financial investigators built a detailed picture of the movement of money in and out of the foundation and showed beyond doubt that for most of the foundation’s existence there was no charitable purpose.”
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