A rabbi has agreed to return £2.35m to charities that he was holding in his personal bank accounts for a number of years without a legitimate explanation.
Barry Marcus, who received an MBE in 2015 for his work on Holocaust education, had his accounts frozen by the National Crime Agency (NCA) when an investigation found that money raised for charitable causes had not been distributed.
The former Central London Synagogue rabbi was entrusted with the funds by Dalaid, an organisation that aims to relieve poverty and advance Jewish education, and the Schwarzschild Foundation, which aims to provide education and relief from poverty for women and girls in the Orthodox Jewish faith.
Both charities said they did not know Marcus, 74, had failed to distribute the funds.
The NCA investigation began in October 2022 when it was discovered that Marcus had received £1m between January and September into his personal accounts. He transferred a large proportion of the money, which had come from the charities, to his other UK bank accounts and accounts overseas.
Initial inquiries could not establish a legitimate explanation for the substantial payments, the NCA said.
The rabbi’s accounts were frozen when, between November 2022 and March 2023, the NCA applied for four account freezing orders over funds totalling £1,183,072. These court orders are used when money is suspected to have been obtained illegally and therefore represents the proceeds of crime, or is intended to be used illegally.
Marcus told investigators he had distributed some of the money along the charities’ aims but when questioned was unable to provide satisfactory evidence of this, the NCA said.
On 31 January this year, Marcus agreed to give back more than £2m to the two charities, almost double the funds the NCA found and froze.
This was able to take place after a hearing on 12 March, when Westminster magistrates court varied the freezing orders to allow the money to be returned.
Dalaid and the Schwarzschild Foundation are being investigated by the Charity Commission, which began statutory inquiries in June 2023 over regulatory concerns, in particular whether trustees have financially benefited from charitable donations and whether the funds have been fully accounted for.
Marcus was a trustee of the Schwarzschild Foundation until March last year.
The NCA said measures were in place to ensure the returned money is distributed appropriately.
Marcus, who was born in South Africa and now lives between the UK and Israel, was lauded for setting up an organisation that provided thousands of educational trips to Auschwitz and for befriending the disgraced fashion designer John Galliano, who was recorded making extreme antisemitic remarks in 2010.
Speaking through his solicitor, Marcus said he had suffered ill health in the past few years and “regrets the inconvenience caused to the two charities and is cooperating with the Charity Commission”.
Tim Quarrelle, the NCA branch commander, asset denial, said: “This is a fantastic result that will see millions of pounds returned to the two charities they had been deprived from. It follows a challenging and complex NCA investigation that ran over 18 months, showing the commitment of our officers to pursue every line of inquiry to reach the best possible outcome.
“We are particularly grateful to our colleagues at the Charity Commission who are in parallel investigating issues relating to these charities.”
