Angel Mom accused of embezzling funds

The head of a charity foundation, which has been accused of embezzling donations, has offered to allow a third party agency to audit its financial records.

Qiu Lili, co-founder of Angel Mom Foundation, a charity in Beijing that helps orphans access medical treatment, told China Daily she encouraged transparent auditing of finances at Angel Mom.

Zhou Xiaoyun, an independent investigative reporter, questioned the Angel Mom Foundation’s 2011 annual financial statement on Monday, claiming 6.83 million yuan ($1.10 million) is missing.

"It is reasonable to suspect Angel Mom has off-record funds,” Zhou wrote on his micro blog.

Angel Mom Foundation, as an affiliate of the China Charities Aid Foundation for Children, does not have an individual public account. The charity’s money is recorded in the records of its parent organization.

Zhou said some of the donations received by Angel Mom are missing in the records of the annual financial report of the China Charities Aid Foundation for Children.

He accused Angel Mom of embezzling money based on the report.

According to the 2011 annual financial report of the China Charities Aid Foundation for Children, Angel Mom received 3.73 million yuan in donations. However, on the website of the parent organization, it states Angel Mom received 10.56 million yuan of donations in 2011.

“Why did the parent organization hide as much as 6.83 million yuan for Angel Mom?” Zhou wrote on his micro blog.

Qiu from Angel Mom said the organization had a personal account to receive donations from 2005 to 2012 that was available for public scrutiny online.

But the account stopped publicizing donations in June 2012, because Angel Mom is an affiliated organization and cannot have an individual account, according to State charity regulations.

"But some donors still have our account number and wire money into this account,” Qiu said.

Qiu said publishing the banking statements would not answer all the questions regarding the alleged missing money because the statement would not show the entirety of the money flow.

"Some donors gave cash,” she added.

Angel Mom posted an explanation on its official micro blog on Monday afternoon, stating that the gap between the data is a result of different types of statistics resulting from different time periods, methods and calculations.

Angel Mom also posted a hotline, 8610-6174-7299, for public enquires.

A staff member who answered the phone but declined to give her name, said she was not aware of Angel Mom’s financial flow, and suggested asking Deng Zhixin, a co-founder of Angel Mom. Zheng’s phone was powered off on Tuesday.

Since December 2011, Zhou Xiaoyun has questioned Angel Mom publicly four times, criticizing the organization for money laundry and embezzlement.

The deputy director of the China Charity Information Center, Liu Youping, said charities must be more transparent and called on the foundation to disclose its financial information in a timely and accurate manner to win public trust and receive more donations.

luowangshu@chinadaily.com.cn