What happened to the NotW readers' cash? - 30.05.2014
On May 13 2007, ten days
after Madeleine McCann disappeared from an apartment in Praia da Luz,
the News of the World announced the "biggest ever newspaper
reward" for information leading to Madeleine's safe return. At
11.10pm UK, Sunday May 13, 2007, the newspaper posted this on its
website: Harry Potter author JK Rowling has made a significant
donation to a £1.5m reward for the safe return of Madeleine McCann.
The writer has made the largest, but undisclosed contribution to the
News of the World fund, which means £2.6m is now on offer. British
businessman Stephen Winyard offered a £1m reward earlier this week,
and a colleague of Madeleine's mum Kate a further £100,000.
Manchester (sic) and England star Wayne Rooney and sweetheart Coleen
McLoughlin have also given £25,000 to the newspaper campaign while
music mogul Simon Cowell donated a further £50,000. The reward is
for information directly resulting in the safe return of the
four-year-old who was abducted in Portugal nine days ago. Other
personalities and leading business figures , including BHS boss Sir
Philip Green, Bill Kenwright and Sir Richard Branson, have also
joined together in the unprecedented show of support for the family.
Madeleine's father, Gerry
McCann said: "Anything that can be done to publicise that
Madeleine is missing and help with the search is very welcome."
Portuguese police have also endorsed the reward offer. The
co-operation of the backers means this is the biggest reward ever
offered in a newspaper. Pledges are still pouring into the reward
fund - which will be paid out for the crucial piece of information
that leads police to Madeleine. Sir Philip Green, who matched the
News of the World's £250,000 contribution, said: "My wife Tina
and I have children, and anything we can do to help bring this
beautiful little girl back we will of course do without hesitation.
"We are praying for Madeleine's safe return and can't imagine
what Kate and Gerry are going through at the moment."
Madeleine was snatched
from her parents' Portuguese holiday apartment in the Algarve village
of Praia da Luz on Thursday May 3. The offer is subject to standard
News of the World reward offer conditions. Anyone with information
should contact:
Portuguese Police: 00 351
282 405 40
Portuguese (sic)
Crimestoppers: 00 44 1883 731 336
While the offers of
support from those business people and celebrities were undoubtedly
heartfelt and generous, they didn't actually cost them anything. No
money changed hands between them and the newspaper. They didn't
actually give, donate or contribute to the News of the World Reward
Fund. What they did was pledge. They promised to pay out for "that
crucial piece of information that leads police to Madeleine",
subject to standard News of the World reward offer conditions. (What
those conditions were was never made public.) In July 2011, Madeleine
had still not been found but, as a result of the public uproar
surrounding the phone hacking scandal, News International closed the
News of the World for good. With it, we must assume, went those
promises to pay. But there had been money in the reward fund. Real
money, not just promises and pledges. It didn't come from anyone
famous, just ordinary readers who'd been touched by the story of a
missing child. They had perhaps noticed this article on page 5 of the
News of the World on 13 May 2007: So what happened to that money?
Thank you and goodbye –
03.06.2014
On July 10 2011, in the
wake of reports that its journalists had hacked messages from the
phone of a dead child, the News of the World published its
8,674th and last edition. It called itself “The world’s greatest
newspaper”. Others called it “The paper that died of shame”.
Beneath the hyperbole lay a simple economic truth. The first line of
copy in Edition No. 1 of the News of the World, dated Sunday October
1 1843, read: “THE CHEAPEST AND BEST MODE OF ADVERTISING” News
International’s problem now, though, was that advertisers wouldn’t
touch it with a surgical glove. And so James Murdoch pulled the plug.
The paper was history. But what had happened to the News of the
World Find Madeleine Reward Fund?
The paper had splashed
its £1.5m headline reward figure alongside a picture of Madeleine
and three phone numbers to call with information. (One of these was
its own news desk, which you could call “in strict confidence”.
Whether this meant that the newspaper would fail to share your
information with the police is unclear.) The paper had also invited
readers to add their money - cash donations - to the headline pledges
from the paper and its contingent of celebrities. It had set up a
bank account , No. 52135590, Sort Code 40-36-15, at HSBC in Cathedral
Square, Peterborough, just down the road from News International’s
accounts department. Over the months that followed, for some reason,
it never told its readers how much it had collected.
In its final edition,
although Madeleine’s name and picture had often appeared on its
front page, her story wasn’t one of those it splashed across its
48-page Souvenir Pullout. But beneath a copy of a front page from
December 15 2010 (WORLD EXCLUSIVE | CAUGHT BY THE BAILS. HURLEY
CHEATS.. WITH SHANE) it had marked the key events of 2007:
THREE-YEAR-OLD Madeleine McCann is reported missing in Portugal by
her parents Kate and Gerry. Gordon Brown replaces Tony Blair as
leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister. That was it. The last
chance to tell the readers was gone. Who would now know?
Early in December 2013,
Gerry McCann was contacted by email at the University of Hospital of
Leicester, where he is a Consultant Cardiologist. He was asked what
had happened to the Reward Fund. His reply, within the hour, was
courteous and clear: That is something you will need to take up with
News International. My understanding is that the reward was made up
of pledges. Gerry
News International, of
course, no longer existed. On June 26th 2013, it had re-branded
itself as News UK. But fourteen months earlier, in September 2011,
it was still News International.
Ten weeks after the
company had shut down the News of the World, a Press Officer was
asked by email:
1. Is (the Reward Fund)
still active?
2. How much was raised
and what has happened to the funds since?
3. Given the demise of
the newspaper, who is now responsible for the administration of this
account?
4. What are the current
plans for the Fund?
The reply, six days
later, was also courteous and clear: Thank you for your enquiry. I
can confirm that the funds raised by the appeal were donated in April
this year (2011) to the official Madeleine Fund and the fund created
by News of the World is no longer active.
Charity begins at home –
03.06.2014
When News International
revealed in a September 2011 email that the News of the World had
paid out cash, donated by its readers as a Reward for information
leading to the safe return of Madeleine McCann, to the limited
company Fund set up by her parents in 2007, it raised a number of
questions. Not least among them was what had happened to the
charities who had been promised the money in the event of the reward
not being paid out. (The whereabouts of the child are still, sadly,
not known.)
In October 2011, each
charity was asked three questions: Had they been consulted before
being named as potential recipients in the event of an unpaid reward?
Had they ever been informed how much money the NOTW had raised? Were
they ever told they would no longer be receiving any money from the
unclaimed reward fund? A spokesperson for NSPCC replied: We can’t
identify any direct work we did with NotW on this. It’s possible
they just did it without letting us know. A spokesperson for
Barnardo’s wrote: We can confirm that we have no record of
correspondence with the News of the World regarding the Madeleine
McCann fund. For any further queries relating to this matter, please
contact News International.
But how willing would
News International be to share more information?
Putting the ‘press’in suppress – 04.06.2014
On March 4th 2012, Hacked
Off, in its campaign for a free and accountable press, reviewed on
its blog the events of the previous week at the Leveson Inquiry. The
Inquiry had begun Module 2, examining the relationship between the
police and the press. One witness was the Guardian’s Nick Davies,
whose revelations over the hacking of Millie Dowler’s phone had led
to the demise of the News of the World. In his evidence he had said:
..material provided from press officers can be inaccurate and “out
of step” with the needs of the public, as they are employed to
protect the interests of the organisation. Kate and Gerry McCann are,
alongside Chris Jefferies and the Dowler family, very much
poster-children for Hacked Off. They are regular headline signators
of the group’s campaigning activities. So it would be interesting
to know what they make of the activities of News International’s
press office in protecting the interests of the organisation with
which they had previously had such a damaging relationship, according
to their evidence at the Leveson Inquiry.
On 28 September 2011, a
News International press officer had revealed that, in April 2011,
the News of the World had paid out cash collected by readers as a
reward for information leading to the safe return of Madeleine
McCann, despite the fact the child was still missing. It had
transferred the money to the limited company set up by Kate and Gerry
McCann, but hadn’t told its readers. It had also failed to tell the
charities to which it had said it would donate the money if the
reward hadn’t been claimed. The News International press officer
had written: I can confirm that the funds raised by the appeal were
donated in April this year (2011) to the official Madeleine Fund and
the fund created by News of the World is no longer active. There was
one obvious question which needed to be put News International. How
much had been raised by its readers?, it was asked on 29 September
2011. A couple of days later, the press officer replied: I am
checking with colleagues if we can release that information. Several
weeks passed without reply. The press office was during this period
busy with the fallout from the hacking scandal. But perhaps parent
company News Corporation could help.
Genie Gevenchak, Chief
Compliance and Ethics Officer of News Corporation, based in New York,
was approached on 26 October 2011. The first of nine questions put to
Ms Gevenchak was: How much did News of the World readers contribute
to the paper's 'Madeleine Fund' reward appeal? Ms Gevenchak’s
ethics apparently precluded her from replying directly, but it did
prompt a reply on 1 November 2011 from the News International press
officer in London: I’m afraid that we didn’t disclose the amount
raised by the fund in the paper and nor am I able to explain why
those funds were paid out to the charity in April 2011 given that
those staff involved in the decision have now left the business
following the closure of the News of the World.
I’m sorry that we are
not able to help with more detail.
And that, it seemed, was
the end of that.
Except the Leveson
Inquiry proved, if not a practical tool for developing a sensible
mechanism for curbing the wilder excesses of the press, at least a
fountain of information. After Susan Panuccio, then Chief Financial
Officer of NI Group, had appeared before Lord Justice Leveson to
explain her role at the organisation, she too was asked, on 18
January 2012, how much News of the World readers had donated. A week
later she replied: I have asked (News International’s press
officer) to respond on my behalf. Later that day, the press officer
wrote: As you know, we didn’t disclose the amount raised by the
fund in the paper nor do we have any obligation to do so. We can
confirm that the funds raised by the appeal were donated in April
last year to the official Madeleine Fund and that the fund created by
News of the World is no longer active. I’m sorry that we are not
able to help with more detail. And that, it seemed again, was the end
of that.
But maybe Nick Davies had
been right. Maybe it was just the press officer that was the problem.
In May 2012, the Guardian reported on the appointment of Guto Harri,
formerly Boris Johnson’s director of external affairs, as head of
News International’s head of communications. In the report, Harri
was quoted as saying: I would not be joining this company myself if I
thought that they condoned, and were actively involved in, any of the
practices that they have rightly been condemned for and I cannot
think that the people I have met and the man I will be reporting to
(Chief Executive, Tom Mockridge) is I think without doubt the person
most determined to clean up any lingering odour of bad practices.
Harri was clearly the man to take questions head on. On 1 August
2012, he was asked: .. in the light of the new era of openness and
transparency at News International and your appointment.. Can you
please tell me how much money News of the World readers contributed
towards the newspaper's Madeleine Fund, account number 52135590? He
didn’t reply.
But the News
International press officer – yes, that one – did: Guto passed
your message to me. As you know, we didn’t disclose the amount
raised by the fund in the paper. You could try asking the charity and
see if they would like to give you more detail. I’m sorry that we
are not able to help. (Madeleine’s Fund: No Stone Unturned Ltd, of
course, is not a charity. It is a limited company.) News
International, though, appeared to be serious about introducing a
new culture. It made a new hiring, a Chief Compliance Officer, said
by the Guardian to be part of Rupert Murdoch’s broad internal
anti-corruption review.
Rupert Murdoch had, in
August 2012, told News Corporation staff: To continue to be worthy of
the trust of our audiences around the world, we all have an
affirmative obligation to adhere to the highest standards of ethical
behaviour, consistent with our standards of business conduct. Fair
enough. Could the new Chief Compliance Officer help? How much did
NotW readers donate to NI's bank account number 52135590?, an email
asked. The reply came a couple of weeks later, on 12 September 2012:
I apologise for the delay in getting back to you. I am currently in
the process of investigating this matter more fully, and hope to be
able to respond to you substantively as soon as I am in a position to
do so. Which was excellent news.
On 2 October 2011, came
an update: I am still investigating this, but will respond to you
substantively as soon as I am in a position to do so. This seemed
like an awfully long time to check a bank statement. By the beginning
of December 2011, nothing more had emerged from News International
and it had been fifteen months since the press office had been asked
what had happened to News of the World Reward Fund. For some reason,
News International was having real difficulty revealing how much
money it had taken from the public and given to the McCanns’ Fund.
So the company was asked, once again, how much did the public donate
to the News of the World Madeleine Reward Fund in 2007? This time,
the reply came within twenty-four hours. It stated: In answer to your
question, a total of £21,257.32 was received and banked in The
Madeline (sic) Fund HSBC Bank Account No 52135590 between May 2007
and November 2007. No other payments save those relating to this
particular appeal were received from readers into this account.
In April, 2011, after a
considerable length of time had passed and taking into account the
circumstances of the McCann family, it was agreed by senior
executives at the News of the World that the £21,257.32 should be
paid to Madeline's (sic) Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned. This fund
is a not-for-profit company which was established to find Madeline
(sic) McCann, support her family and bring her abductors to justice.
See http://www.findmadeleine.com/about_us/madeleines-fund.html for
more details about this fund, the directors of the company as well as
its objectives. News International recognises that, in transferring
the payments collected in 2007 to the Madeline's (sic) Fund: Leaving
No Stone Unturned in April 2011, the News of the World may not have
strictly complied with the terms under which that money was collected
from its readers. The article dated 13 May, 2007 stated under the
heading 'How you can add to the reward': 'Should the reward remain
unpaid for any reason, the portion made up of readers' donations will
be shared equally by children's charities Barnado's, Childline and
the NSPCC.' It was decided, entirely in good faith, that it would be
more appropriate, given the circumstances of the McCann family, that
the money be transferred to Madeline's Fund: Leaving No Stone
Unturned, as opposed to splitting the donations between the three
charities. We would like to thank you for bringing this matter to our
attention. We are in the process of notifying the three charities of
the findings of our investigation into this matter, but feel, on
balance, that the decision taken to pass the money collected to
Madeline's (sic) Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned was the right one,
both ethically and morally, taking into account the difficulties and
sensitivities surrounding this tragic matter.
The answer, after 15
months of questions, simply raised more questions, as we shall see.
But at least someone at News International seemed to disagree with
the press officer’s notion that, when asked to reveal how much
money the public had donated to a fund set up by one of their
newspapers, they had no obligation to do so. Perhaps, as Nick Davies
had suggested, the press officers were truly “out of step” with
the public.
No stone left unturned? - 18.06.2014
Visitors to
findmadeleine.com, the website of Madeleine’s Fund: Leaving No
Stone Unturned, who wish to learn more about the Fund, may click on
the link marked ‘About Us’. Here they can read:
Leaving No Stone Unturned
Limited (is) a not-for-profit company, aka Madeleine's Fund, which
has been established to find Madeleine McCann, support her family and
bring her abductors to justice. The Fund is following best practice
governance procedures as set out in the Good Governance Code for the
Voluntary and Community Sector. The directors of the company are
Brian Kennedy, Michael Linnett, Edward Smethurst, Jon Corner, Kate
McCann & Gerry McCann. They have appropriate legal, business and
charitable experience. An experienced Fund Administrator has been
appointed to ensure the highest standards of transparency and
accountability. This should enable the Directors to maintain an
appropriate governance distance in the day-to-day operations of the
Fund.
After News International
had revealed that, in April 2011, over £21,000 collected from News
of the World readers as a reward “for information leading to the
safe return of Madeleine” had instead been paid out to Madeleine’s
Fund, a series of questions were put to representatives of the Fund
in an attempt to confirm what had happened to the money. Clarence
Mitchell, official spokesman for Kate and Gerry McCann, was asked by
email what had happened to the News of the World Reward Fund. He did
not reply.
Two emails to the Find
Madeleine website received only an automated response: Thank you for
contacting the Find Madeleine Campaign. Your email will be read by a
member of our campaign team. Please understand that we receive a
large volume of emails and as a result you may not necessarily
receive any further contact from us.
A third email to the
site’s Webmaster eventually produced a reply: Sorry, I do not know
the answer to your question.
It was at this point, in
early December 2013, that Dr. Gerry McCann was asked what had
happened to the News of the World Reward Fund. He replied: That is
something you will need to take up with News International. My
understanding is that the reward was made up of pledges. This reply
contradicted the information previously given by News International,
so two further emails were sent to Dr. McCann, explaining News
International’s position. He did not reply.
Two further directors of
Madeleine's Fund were then approached. Jon Corner is CEO of The
Landing, a media facilities company at Salford Quays which, according
to Visit Salford, is “a totally new facility at the heart of
MediaCityUK where SMEs and micro-businesses can work alongside large
media and technology organisations to drive product efficiency and
develop new industry processes.” According to his own website,
Edward Smethurst is an “Award Winning Manchester Solicitor... In
March 2012, Edward won the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award at
the Manchester Legal Awards 2012, which recognised his contribution
to the legal industry in addition to his charitable work that
includes being Chairman of the Madeleine McCann Fund and a trustee of
Cancer Research UK.” Both directors were asked whether the News of
the World Reward cash had been paid into the Madeleine’s Fund. How
much? When? And had the transfer had been a subject of discussion at
any board meeting of Leaving No Stone Unturned Ltd.? Mr. Corner did
not reply. Mr. Smethurst passed the enquiry to the Fund Secretary,
whose name we are not releasing at this time. (This was, it seemed,
the experienced Fund Administrator who had been appointed to ensure
the highest standards of transparency and accountability.)
Early in January 2014,
the Secretary wrote: I confirm that the Fund does not hold any reward
money for finding Madeleine. The income received in the year to which
you refer was from donations. Once more, this was at odds with the
information given by News International. The Secretary was further
asked to confirm or deny if any payment other than the £550,000 for
serialisation of Mrs. McCann's book was made by News International to
the Fund in April 2011.
The Secretary replied: I
am sorry but I am not authorised to respond further.
In mid-January 2014, the
same request was put to Mr. Smethurst. The reply came, instead, from
the Secretary: In light of the fact that the Board is inundated with
requests for information and we publish our accounts that are
independently audited and publicly available, the Board is not
prepared to enter into answering individual queries. We are sorry
that we are not able to be of further help.
In May 2014, it was put
to Mr. Smethurst and the Secretary that, in April 2011, News
International transferred the amount of £21,257.32 to Madeleine’s
Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned Ltd. The money had been donated by
readers as a reward for information leading to the safe return of
Madeleine. Both were given the opportunity to amend or correct the
claim. No reply was received.
So what did happen to the
News of the World readers’ money?
And what happened to
transparency?
Rebekah, Kate, Gerry andCash – 23.06.2014
Rebekah Brooks and Kate &
Gerry McCann at the Leveson Inquiry in 2011.News International
revealed that in April 2011 News of the World paid out £21k ‘reward’
to McCanns’ company. Cash had been donated in 2007 by readers to
paper’s appeal as reward for information leading to safe return of
Madeleine. If unclaimed, reward was to have been paid to three
children’s charities. Madeleine’s Fund directors will not confirm
payment.So who approved the payout of the cash to the McCanns’
company, Leaving No Stone Unturned Ltd? And why? Those questions were
first put to News International in September 2011. But the company
wouldn’t say.
In November 2011, a press
officer wrote: (I am unable).. to explain why these funds were paid
out.. in April 2011 given that those staff involved in the decision
have now left the business following the closure of the News of the
World.
In December 2012, a News
International executive wrote: In April, 2011, after a considerable
length of time had passed and taking into account the circumstances
of the McCann family, it was agreed by senior executives at the News
of the World that the £21,257.32 should be paid to Madeline's Fund:
Leaving No Stone Unturned.
In July 2013, the same
executive added: This decision would have been approved at the time
by the senior executives in accordance with the Company's financial
approvals process. However, the company was still unwilling to
identify them.
By January 2014, News
International had relaunched itself as News UK. The same executive
now wrote: ..the decision to transfer the money to Madeline's (sic)
Fund in 2011 was made by senior executives at the company at the time
who are not currently employed by News UK.
I have not been able to
find any written records relating to the payment.. It is not clear
how senior executives at the News of the World operated within the
Company’s financial approvals process without leaving any written
record.
Was there a clue in the
original appeal? In any matter relating to the reward fund, the
Editor’s decision is final, the paper had said. From January 2007
until the paper closed in July 2011, the editor of the News of the
World was Colin Myler. Mr. Myler appeared at the Leveson Inquiry in
December 2011. In his Third Witness Statement, he wrote: The
Newspaper was very supportive of Kate and Gerry and their campaign to
find their daughter.. We were very happy to undertake a number of
things unconditionally. One example of this was the appeal we mounted
to raise donations (sic) to the Madeleine campaign fund. This was
very successful and raised £1.5m in 48 hours. The payout, however,
was not mentioned. Mr. Myler did not reply to emails asking him to
confirm whether he authorised the reward money payout and which other
News International executives were involved in the decision. In her
evidence to Leveson, then News International Group CFO Susan Panuccio
stated: The governance of how funds are used (including ensuring that
they are not used for illegal or unethical purposes) is primarily
monitored and controlled via the Managing Editor’s Office for each
title. The paper’s Managing Editor in April 2011 was Bill Akers. It
has not been possible to contact Mr. Akers for comment.
But what prompted the
decision to pay out the money, whoever authorised it?
On April 3 2011, the News
of the World noted that Mrs McCann had run a 10k in aid of the
charity Missing People. That would be the only appearance either of
the McCanns would make in the newspaper that month. There is nothing
in the paper at that time to explain the sudden decision to make the
payout, so perhaps the answer lies elsewhere.
When the McCanns appeared
before Lord Leveson in November 2011, Mrs McCann was highly critical
of the News of the World. She described how she felt “totally
violated” after the publication of her personal diaries in 2008.
The McCanns went on to explain how they had negotiated with News
International to sell the serialisation rights to Mrs. McCann’s
book, which appeared in the Sun and Sunday Times in May 2011. In his
evidence, Mr. McCann told the Inquiry: .. we had a couple of meetings
with the general manager and -- Will Lewis and Rebekah Brooks and
others.. In the epilogue to the paperback version of her book, Mrs
McCann confirms: In the spring of 2011, we met a team from News
International to hear what they had to offer. Eventually, they would
offer £550,000 for serialisation rights. News UK confirm this
figure, which appears in the accounts for Leaving No Stone Unturned
Ltd in y/e 30 March 2012 under Restricted Funds.
News UK also wrote: ..the
Reward Fund payout was in addition to, separate from and not
included, within the payment of £550,000 for serialisation rights to
Mrs McCann’s book. When Rebekah Brooks appeared before the Leveson
Inquiry, she was asked by Mr Jay QC about the negotiations. In her
answer she said: … We had been going through a list of issues that
Dr McCann and Kate McCann wanted to be assured of before we went
forward with the serialisation.. Was the Reward Fund among the issues
discussed? It has not been possible to contact Mrs Brooks. Mr. Lewis
referred emails regarding the Reward Fund back to News UK. News UK
say: ..the decision taken to pass the money collected to Madeline's
(sic) Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned was the right one, both
ethically and morally, taking into account the difficulties and
sensitivities surrounding this tragic matter.
But questions remain. If
News UK are happy that the correct ethical and moral decisions were
made by their senior executives, why won’t they identify them? Why,
three years after paying out over £21,000, donated by readers as a
reward for information leading to the safe return of Madeleine, have
they yet to make any public acknowledgement of the payout or thank
those who generously donated? Why didn’t they inform the charities
who missed out at the time of the payout? And if News UK are telling
the truth about handing over readers’ cash – and there seems no
reason to doubt them – why are the directors of Madeleine’s Fund:
Leaving No Stone Unturned Ltd so unwilling to confirm the payment?
Follow the money –
29.06.2014
So what did happen to the
‘reward money’ donated by News of the World readers in 2007 and
handed to the McCanns’ company in April 2011? One thing is clear:
it wasn’t used to search for Madeleine. News UK have stated that:
the Reward Fund payout was in addition to, separate from and not
included within the payment of £550,000 for serialisation rights to
Mrs McCann’s book. According to documents at Companies House,
income to Madeleine’s Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned Ltd in year
ended March 31 2012, the period covering the April 2011 transfer,
totalled £856,393. That financial year, for the first time in the
five-year reporting history of the company, income was split into
Restricted and Unrestricted Funds. This is a common practice among
charities. Typically, a donor will request that the money given is
used to support a particular aspect of the charity’s activities.
But Madeleine’s Fund isn’t a charity. It is a limited company.
Income under Restricted Funds is shown as £550,000, precisely the
figure paid by News International for serialisation rights to Mrs
McCann’s book.
On p8 of the accounts, it
is noted : Following the publication of Kate McCann’s book,
‘Madeleine: Our daughter’s disappearance and the continuing
search for her’, £550,000 was donated for the direct costs of the
search for, and the investigation into the disappearance of,
Madeleine. No explanation is offered in the accounts as to why it was
deemed necessary to make this distinction. Given that the ‘reward
money’ does not appear within Restricted Funds, it can only have
been accounted for within Unrestricted Funds. It must form part of
the £306,393 income other than that from News International’s
serialisations rights payment. Which, of course, means it could be
used for expenditure other than direct costs of the search for
Madeleine.
In year ended March 31
2012, that expenditure amounted to £272,764. How did the Fund spend
so much money in one year on costs other than directly searching for
Madeleine? The Fund’s website, findmadeleine.com, claims it
operates to “the highest standards of transparency and
accountability” but in reality, as the company’s accounts note,
“the financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the
special provisions relating to companies subject to the small
companies regime within Part 15 of the Companies Act 2006 and in
accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard for Smaller Entities
(effective April 2008)”.
In practice, this means
the Fund is required to offer much less information on its activities
than it would if it was indeed a charity. Here’s how that
Unrestricted Funds expenditure of £272,764 is broken down within the
published accounts:
Merchandising and
Campaign Costs 242,727
Administration Expenses
24,909
Tax on surplus on
ordinary activities 5,128
But what are those first
two figures paying for?
According to the
Director’s Report for that year, the Fund:
- continued to pay
for a 24 hour, 7 days a week telephone line to receive and capture
information provided by the general public worldwide
- provided
part-time administrative support to aid the investigation and
campaign to find Madeleine (campaign coordinator and media liaison)
- facilitated
complete hand over of all material relating to Madeleine’s
abduction held by the Fund to the MPS
- supported a small
investigation team, including a Portuguese speaker to lead a private
search for Madeleine. Since March 2012, private investigation of
lines of enquiry has been suspended whilst the MPS review progresses.
The private investigation team employed by the Fund continue to
cooperate and work with the Metropolitan Police force as and when
necessary.
- continued to fund
the awareness-raising campaign to ensure that Madeleine is not
forgotten and to encourage the general public to remain vigilant.
This has included the running of the Find Madeleine website
(www.findmadeleine.com)
- continued to fund
and work in partnership with a specialist Portuguese communications
agency to ensure that our message is communicates as widely and
accurately as possible in Portugal.
The accounts offer us no
guidance, but it might be reasonable to assume that those first four
activities were met from Restricted Funds - where expenditure in that
year amounted to an additional £234,086 - in that they appear to be
directly related to ‘the search for Madeleine’. (Alternatively,
the ‘part-time administrative support’ may form part of the
£24,909 Administration Expenses, met from Unrestricted Funds. The
Fund doesn’t say.) But how did the Fund spend nearly a quarter of a
million pounds on Merchandising and Campaign Costs?
Perhaps some clues to the
expenditure can be found back in 2008, when the Fund published its
first set of accounts, covering May 2007 to March 2008. Then it had
offered, quite reasonably, a breakdown of its expenditure: Extract
from accounts of Madeleine's Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned Lt for
year ending 31 March 2008. That breakdown showed that of the £815k
total expenditure, just £250k, a curiously round number, had been
spent on ‘Search fees’. Nearly £82k had been spent on
‘Awareness’, perhaps advertising costs. Over £37k had been spent
on a rudimentary website. £123k had been spent on Campaign
Management, fees to PR professionals. £26k had been spent on Media
Monitoring, which Wikipedia notes as ‘a beneficial tool to evaluate
the efforts and progress of a PR firm.’ But perhaps most surprising
of all were some of the other costs identified. Legal fees and
expenses amounted to over £111k. What these legal fees covered
remains unclear, but what they didn’t cover were legal fees
associated with the constitution of the Fund itself. Those amounted
to an additional £68k. Administering the Fund cost another £36k in
‘Fund professional fees’, £13k for ‘Auditors’ remuneration’
and £7k ‘Accountancy fees’.
That would be the only
occasion on which the Fund would offer any breakdown of its
expenditure. For the next five years, it simply restricted itself to
one figure for Merchandise and Campaign Costs, another for
Administration expenses and a third for Tax. It would perhaps be
wrong to compare the breakdown of expenditure in 2007/08 to that in
2011/12. But it seems unlikely that News of the World readers who, in
2007, had given their cash as a reward for information leading to the
safe return of Madeleine - and had been told that, in the event of
the reward not being claimed, it would be paid instead to three
children’s charities - ever envisaged that their donations would be
used to pay lawyers, auditors, accountants and PR guys. And with not
a word of thanks, this time, from Kate and Gerry McCann.
Gone. But not forgotten –
08.07.2014
Findmadeleine.com bills
itself as The official site to find Madeleine McCann. Whether
the website achieves its aim before the combined forces of the
Metropolitan Police and the Polícia Judiciária remains to be seen.
But it doesn’t seem capable of looking after even itself. Some of
its pages have gone missing. Visitors who click on ‘Updates’ are
offered a series of 25 blog entries by Kate and Gerry McCann dating
from 23 March 2009 to 11 June 2014. But until the end of June this
year, you could have found another 17 or so entries. Those messages,
posted between 14 January 2010 and Christmas 2012, have simply
disappeared from the site. Why might that be? It may, of course, be a
simple glitch that will soon be resolved. Alternatively, it may have
been a deliberate removal of information that may have proved
difficult or embarrassing, in retrospect, to explain. Like the entry
for Monday 2 May 2011. Unlike in the real world, nothing really
disappears from the internet. Sites like gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk and
mccannfiles.com are dedicated to preserving information related to
the disappearance of Madeleine. And, especially for the avoidance of
doubt, the Wayback Machine (archive.org.web) is an invaluable tool,
capturing as it does the content of websites at particular points in
time.
In a snapshot from
findmadeleine.com taken by the Wayback Machine on 4 May 2011
Kate McCann explains what “an incredibly busy year so far” 2011
had been. She explains how there had been three fundraising events
between January and March. She mentions the money raised - though not
how much - and thanks everybody who supported these events. She
writes about the launch of her book on 8 May 2011, which “poignantly
and coincidentally happens to be Madeleine’s 8 th birthday”. She
reiterates her gratitude to supporters “for not forgetting”. But
what she forgets to do is mention anything about the News of the
World Reward Fund. Which seems odd, because in the weeks preceding
this update, in April 2011, the News of the World had quietly
handed over to Madeleine’s Fund some £21,000 that had been
donated by readers in 2007 towards a reward for information leading
to the safe return of Madeleine. Why did Kate McCann not take this
opportunity to thank those very readers? Why, along with the News
of the World and News International, did she not want
anyone to know about the payment? Why do the McCanns and their fellow
directors of Leaving No Stone Unturned Ltd continue to refuse
to acknowledge accepting this money? Did those readers’ donations
simply disappear, like lost webpages, into payments for lawyers,
accountants and PR men? Does it look a little greedy, taking £21,000
that should rightly have gone to three children's charities, at
precisely the same time the Fund was about to receive another
'donation' of £550,000 from News International for
serialisation rights to Mrs McCann's book? Is that what’s so
embarrassing? Or is it the acknowledgement that cashing in the reward
money makes it look like you know your daughter isn’t coming back?
Premature Ejaculation? -
26.09.2014
At Scotland Yard,
Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood met with us at the outset,
spoke frankly, but made it clear that he and his colleagues could not
favour us – or any part of the media community – over any other
parties. According to a Metropolitan Police document seen by this
blog, DCI Andy Redwood and another unnamed MPS Detective Inspector
met with Anthony Summers and Rubby (sic) Swan at 1200 on Friday 15th
February 2013. The Incident Message notes that the authors "..
are researching a book on Madeleine with the knowledge of Mr and Mrs
McCann and our contact details were supplied by them." The
message states, in bold type: "It was made absolutely clear that
any approach to nominals in this case would be detrimental to our
objective of building up a productive working relationship with the
Portuguese. Our clear priority is to find out what happened to
Madeleine and nothing should distract from that."
It goes on to say:
"Absolutely no “off the record” comments or other
information were made/given. They were politely advised that all the
information is in the public domain via the PJ files on the internet,
and whilst we understood the interest and value in such a book that
would extend to telling the story of this investigative review, their
time would be best spent getting up to speed on the available files
and forming their own opinion on it."
The internal message, for
Officers Information and classified as Low Priority, was revealed
under the Freedom of Information Act.The message also states: "It
was explained that despite agreeing to meet them, we were unable to
assist in anyway re their project, even as far as giving them
timescale’s for the review’s completion. (This was requested in
order that they could tie in the publication of the book to that of
our process’s end result.)"
In their book, Summers &
Swan write, in July 2014: "The authors wish to make clear at the
outset that, after more than two years studying this controversial
case, they have seen not a shred of evidence to indicate that Gerry
and Kate McCann, any member of their holiday group, or Robert Murat
were at any stage – in May 2007 or subsequently – guilty of
malfeasance of any kind in connection with Madeleine McCann’s
disappearance or the repercussions that followed." Three years
and three months after they launched their review, now a
fully-fledged investigation, a 37 strong team of Met officers have
yet to draw their own final conclusion. The Met, it seems, were
unable to fall in line with the publisher’s marketing plans. Can it
be that Summers and Swan’s book , described as ‘the definitive
account of the Madeleine McCann case’, came rather too soon?
La suite ici
