The Charity Commission has appointed Pesh Framjee of Crowe Clark Whitehill as interim manager of Afghan Poverty Relief, following the sentencing of two of its trustees for theft from the charity.

Framjee has been appointed as a temporary and protective measure and to the exclusion of the charity’s trustees. He will be responsible for determining the future of the charity and representing it during ongoing criminal confiscation proceedings.

The Commission opened a statutory inquiry into Afghan Poverty Relief in February 2012 to investigate concerns “relating to the alleged misappropriation of the charity’s funds” and concerns over its administration, governance and overall management.

The Commission also took action at the same time to prevent two of the charity’s then trustees, Syed Hajnajafi and Akila Kassam, from “entering into certain transactions in the administration of the charity”.

Both trustees were suspended by the Commission as trustees of the charity and, following a criminal prosecution supported by the Commission, were convicted of theft from the charity in April 2014. In May Hajnajafi, 50, was sentenced to five years imprisonment, and his wife Kassam, 46, to three years, for defrauding the charity out of more than £350,000.

Both were found guilty of one count of theft of charitable funds and have been disqualified from acting as charity trustees.

Framjee told Civil Society News: “It is early days yet, I’m meeting with the two remaining trustees shortly and once I meet with them I will understand more about what the charity has been doing and how it has been doing it. It is just a shame that what seems to have been a charity that is well supported by good donors has had money effectively stolen from it by two of its trustees."

Framjee took over the management and administration of the charity on 26 September. He will represent the charity during the criminal confiscation proceeding and make arrangements for the “proper application of funds that may be recovered by the charity as a result”. The charity’s trustees have been informed of the decision.

He will also identify the extent of any assets and liabilities of the charity in the UK and Afghanistan, and compile and submit overdue annual accounts and returns.

Afghan Poverty Relief, which claims to provide the relief of poverty, sickness and distress to communities in Afghanistan, has not filed its annual return with the Charity Commission since those ending in May 2010. In the year ending May 2009, it had an income of £605,278.