Charity watchdog's five-year fight for the truth about Aspinall Foundation

Independent

3 days ago

Leaving Number 10 in disgrace after the Partygate scandal three years ago has not stopped Boris Johnson getting rich ever since.
He has earned millions from books and lecture tours, enough to buy a £4m Oxfordshire manor house for him, wife Carrie and their children.
It was a different story when the couple were in Downing Street in January 2021 before the Partygate antics surfaced.
They were in desperate need of money after Mr Johnson's expensive divorce – and what became known as the 'wallpapergate' affair – left their finances in tatters.
He was criticised after failing to disclose secret Tory funding for a lavish refurbishment of their Downing Street flat by interior designer Lulu Lytle.
It was at this moment that the couple received a much-needed – and timely – cash injection. Carrie Johnson, or Carrie Symonds, Mr Johnson's fiancee as she then was, was hired by the Aspinall Foundation wildlife conservation charity as director of communications on an estimated 'high five-figure salary'.
Just two months after Mr Aspinall signed Ms Johnson, hailing her as a 'huge asset', she had to defend it when it was hit by a potential scandal.
It emerged that the Charity Commission had opened a 'regulatory compliance case' investigation into the Aspinall Foundation in 2020.
The matters being investigated by the watchdog pre-dated Ms Johnson's arrival at the charity and there is no suggestion she was the subject of investigation.
She played down the gravity of the situation, saying such action was 'commonplace during routine regulatory checks'.
However, any notion that it was commonplace was blown out of the water weeks later. Then, in March 2022, the commission announced a statutory inquiry – its most serious form of investigation – into the Aspinall Foundation and its sister charity Howletts Wild Animal Trust.
It was looking into 'serious concerns about the governance and financial management after reports of possible conflicts of interest and related-party transactions' of both – while adding that the announcement was not in itself a finding of wrongdoing.
Extraordinarily, five years after first sounding the alarm bell, the commission still has the Aspinall Foundation in its crosshairs. Two months ago it took its most drastic action yet, sending in troubleshooters – interim managers – to the foundation after 'fresh issues of concern were identified requiring us to embark on a further phase of investigation'.
The Charity Commission's code of practice spells out the seriousness of this step. It states that it can appoint interim managers to act as 'receivers and managers' after a statutory inquiry – and 'if it is satisfied there has been misconduct and/or mismanagement in the charity's administration or it is necessary to protect the charity's property'.
Using language akin to policing, it explains the aim is to 'detect, prevent or disrupt misconduct or mismanagement.' Misconduct is defined as 'any act that the person committing it knew – or ought to have known – was criminal, unlawful or improper'.
Moreover the interim managers can take over the charity completely, excluding trustees from decision making.
One of the most striking aspects of the commission's five year investigation into the Aspinall Foundation is its relentlessness. It began informal enquiries in July 2020; in November 2020 it was sufficiently concerned to open a 'regulatory compliance case'; in March 2021 that became a 'statutory inquiry' – its most serious type of investigation – and now it has gone even further, sending in interim managers.
The focus of the investigation has been the same throughout, flagging up concerns about 'governance; financial management; conflicts of interest; unauthorised trustee benefit; whether trustees have complied with their duties under the law.'
Allegations against the Aspinall Foundation, mainly based on its accounts, include allowing trustees' chairman Mr Aspinall, 65, to rent its palatial HQ, Howletts House, for £2,500 a month; paying £150,000 to his wife, Victoria, for 'interior design'; making loans to Mr Aspinall - in 2019 he reportedly owed it £113,000, and paying £124,000 for accountancy to Alvarium, a company of which Charles Filmer, a former Aspinalls trustee was a director.
Allegations against the Howletts Wild Animal Trust include paying a £30,000 a year pension to Mr Aspinall's step mother Lady Sarah Aspinall for 'gardening services'.
The charity has defended itself in the past saying the payments to Victoria Aspinall were conducted 'at arms length', adding that the fees were 'subject to a rigorous benchmarking exercise to ensure the foundation received value for money'.
It has said Mr Aspinall repaid all debts to the charity.
The Howletts Wild Animal Trust has reportedly said previously that Lady Sarah was entitled to her £30,000 a year for 'prior service as head gardener for many years'.
The Charity Commission has wide ranging powers to act against charities where wrongdoing is found. They range from removing trustees to taking over the running of the charity and winding it up completely.
The leadership of the non profit-making and unconventional Aspinall Foundation has always resembled a high society charitable affair involving three generations of the casino owning Aspinalls, Brexit supporting tycoons, eccentric aristocrats, glamorous women and maverick Tories like Boris Johnson and his political and personal coterie. The foundation was created by Mr Aspinall's flamboyant father, gambling tycoon John Aspinall, in 1984.
He was a close friend of fellow gambler Lord Lucan, who disappeared in 1974, and was also close to anti-EU campaigner Sir James Goldsmith, father of Zac and Ben. John Aspinall's Clermont Gambling club in London became the venue for celebrity nightclub Annabel's, opened by Mark Birley in the 1960s. Mark Birley's son, Robin, is a former trustee of the Aspinall Foundation, but his time there predates the Charity Commission's inquiries.
Robin Birley, who owns the 5 Hertford St private club in Mayfair, renowned as a meeting place for wealthy Brexit supporters, gave £200,000 to Nigel Farage's UKIP party and £20,000 to Mr Johnson's successful Tory leadership campaign in 2019.
Mr Birley is the half brother of Sir James Goldsmith's sons Zac and Ben who have both been trustees of the Aspinall Foundation, but also left before any inquiries were launched.
Zac Goldsmith was given a peerage and ministerial post by fellow Old Etonian Mr Johnson as prime minister when he lost his Richmond, Surrey Commons seat in 2019.
Shortly before becoming prime minister, Mr Johnson wrote a 1,000 word paean of praise to Mr Aspinall, commending his 'wonderful' conservation work in a Daily Telegraph article.
Zac Goldsmith is also a mentor and close friend of Mrs Johnson. Her entree into the Tory Party, where she became its head of communications and met Mr Johnson, was as a young constituency campaigner for Zac Goldsmith.
Ben Goldsmith was given a post on the board of the Department of the Environment – where his brother was a minister – in Mr Johnson's administration.
Damian Aspinall, who like his father, once owned a casino, is reputedly worth £200 million. Mt Aspinall's daughter Tansy, whose mother Louise Sebag-Montefiire was Mr Aspinall's first wife, is a trustee of both the Aspinall Foundation and the Howletts Wild Animal Trust.
It has also been suggested that the youngest of twice married Mr Aspinall's three daughters, Freya, a model and internet celebrity, could succeed him as chair of trustees at the Aspinall Foundation.
Freya is the result of a separate relationship by Mr Aspinall with actress Donna Air. He also reportedly dated supermodels Elle Macpherson and Naomi Campbell.
The Aspinall Foundation has also faced criticism for some of its conservation work. In 2014 it was claimed that some members of ten gorillas released to the wild in Africa by the charity were killed. Mr Aspinall blamed one of the gorillas for the killings.