The Charity Commission has disqualified four trustees from a sight loss charity, including its chief executive, who it said had used the charity as a front for criminal activities.
The regulator opened a statutory inquiry into the Organisation of Blind Africans & Caribbeans (OBAC) in 2023 after it identified “potential serious wrongdoing and/or abuse” by its CEO.
Its inquiry found that the four disqualified trustees at the charity had not “sufficiently overseen” the actions of OBAC’s CEO, Ibukun Olashore, by allowing her to continue acting as its leader following a serious criminal conviction.
The regulator said that “the lack of action by the trustees enabled the CEO to have sole access to charity funds and use the charity to offer immigration advice illegally”.
In March 2021, Olashore was charged with serious criminal offences before being convicted in April 2022 of conspiracy to do an act to facilitate the commission of a breach of UK immigration law by a non-UK national, and of conspiracy to possess/control identity documents with intent.
This automatically disqualified Olashore from being a charity trustee or holding a position with senior management functions within a charity.
At her sentencing, the judge concluded that the CEO used OBAC, which was initially registered as a charity in 1994 before being re-registered in 2011, “as a front” to disguise her criminal activities.
The regulator subsequently opened its statutory inquiry after the trustees failed to respond to repeated requests for information. It also had suspicions that the CEO remained at the charity despite her conviction.
Multiple findings of serious misconduct
The commission's inquiry report listed multiple findings of “serious misconduct and/or mismanagement”.
These included the trustees’ failure to suspend the CEO despite her criminal conviction; a continuation of the charity’s immigration services, despite it being rejected by the Immigration Advice Authority; illegal subletting of the charity’s offices, and the trustees’ failure to report serious incidents to the commission.
As a result, the regulator disqualified the most recently serving trustees, three of whom have been disqualified for five years and one of whom has been disqualified for three years.
The regulator has now also removed the charity from its public register after it was struck off by Companies House.
Amy Spiller, head of investigations at the Charity Commission, said: “We expect anyone running a charity to do so honestly, and with integrity.
“To use a charity as a cover for criminal activity is wholly unacceptable and an abuse of trust.
“By allowing this to continue, the charity’s trustees have also abused the trust placed in them and failed to uphold their legal duties.”
