An Orthodox charity has been criticised by the Charity Commission after it gave £250,000 for the medical care of a person linked to its original trustees. 

The regulator said the trustees of Combined Funds Limited, who made the payments over four years ago, had failed to manage conflicts of interest in an inquiry concluded on Tuesday. 

One of the three trustees resigned last year, while new two new, independent trustees joined two years ago. 

The current trustees, the commission said, had “retrospectively agreed” that the medical care payments were “in line with the charity’s objects, as the beneficiary was in poverty and required treatment that was not available on NHS.” 

However, the commission found, “a retrospective consideration is not an appropriate way to manage conflicts of interest/loyalty, and the original trustees’ failure to appropriately manage them at the time was misconduct and/or mismanagement in the administration of the charity”. 

The inquiry, which opened in 2017, was also critical of the charity’s failure to register with the commission until the commission’s engagement with it that year: and of the way over £1 million had been loaned to subsidiaries of the charity between 2012 and 2017, although it found there had been no misappropriation of funds. 

In its conclusion, the commission said it recognised “the positive steps taken by the charity so far to resolve the regulatory concerns and is satisfied that the current trustees are aware of their legal duties and responsibilities”.