The Charity Commission has launched an inquiry into a charity after one of its backers filed for bankruptcy.
Effective Ventures Foundation filed a serious incident report with the commission last December following the collapse of FTX, a US cryptocurrency exchange whose philanthropic arm had funded the UK charity in the past.
The Charity Commission said the inquiry was opened to “establish facts and help ensure the trustees protect the charity’s assets and are running the charity in line with their duties and responsibilities”.
The commission said there was no sign of wrongdoing by the trustees at this time, but there were “indications of potential risk to the charity’s assets”.
The inquiry would also examine “relationships between the charity’s trustees and its funders and the identification and management of conflicts of interest and/or loyalty”, according to the report.
The commission said it may extend the scope of the inquiry should additional issues emerge, but that the trustees of Effective Ventures Foundation had been fully co-operating.
Howie Lempel, interim chief executive of Effective Ventures Foundation UK, said: “The Charity Commission has announced an inquiry into Effective Ventures Foundation in the UK following the collapse of FTX.
“We understand the commission’s desire to exercise extra scrutiny, especially given the scale and profile of the FTX situation, and we will be co-operating fully.
“The trustees have carefully assessed the financial situation and the charity is not reliant on the FTX-related funds for its future operations.
“We have kept the commission informed of our actions throughout the process and note that the commission has confirmed that we complied with our duties in making a serious incident report.
“We are pleased that the commission has found our interactions thus far to be fully co-operative and we plan for that to continue.”