A retired rabbi has agreed to return £2.35m to two charities following a National Crime Agency investigation.

This probe found that 74-year-old Barry Marcus had been holding the charities’ funds in his personal accounts.

During the investigation, which started in October 2022, his accounts were frozen with the NCA finding that “the money had not been used to fund the charitable causes it was intended for”.

The charities involved are poverty and Jewish education organisation Dalaid and Schwarzschild Foundation, which focuses on poverty relief and education support to Jewish women and girls.

The NCA said that both charities “were unaware that the funds had not been distributed”.

Its probe found that Marcus had received more than £1m between January and September 2022, “the bulk of which had originated from the charities, before transferring a substantial proportion to his other UK accounts and accounts overseas” without “a legitimate explanation”.

Between November 2022 and March 2023 four account freezing orders were applied for relating to £1.18m worth of funds in his account.

“Despite maintaining that he had distributed a substantial amount of money in accordance with the charity’s intentions, Marcus was unable to provide satisfactory independent documentation to substantiate this,” said the NCA.

South African born Marcus, who was awarded an MBE in the 2015 New Year’s Honours List for his work on Holocaust education, formally agreed to return more than £2m to charities in January this year. Last month the account freezing orders were altered to allow the funds to be transferred to the two charities.

The Charity Commission is also involved in the case, having opened statutory inquiries into the two charities in June last year. These investigations are ongoing and the regulator has put in place measures to ensure charity funds returns are “properly applied”, added the NCA.

NCA branch commander Tim Quarrelle 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.”

---