Marquess took £50k off Christian charity to fight ‘royal access’ to Putin claims

A marquess took £50,000 from a Christian charity to fight claims he was selling access to Vladimir Putin through the Royal family.

The Marquess of Reading, 82, was given the cash to pay for proposed defamation proceedings after he was caught in an undercover sting offering to sell access to the Kremlin through Prince Michael of Kent, his friend and business partner.

The payment from the network of charities linked to Barnabas Aid, of which the marquess was director and chairman, is now under scrutiny alongside money given for his rent and a car.

It is the latest allegation of the misuse of charity funds to emerge from the international aid charity after The Telegraph revealed that Noel Frost, the former CEO, used company credit cards for personal items including for flights to Las Vegas and an Ironman competition.

It is feared that there is a £15 million hole in the finances of the “Barnabas Family” network of charities and legal entities, which are estimated to be worth up to £100 million.

Bitter infighting at the group has led to claims and counterclaims which resulted in the law firm Crowell and Moring LLP being called in to investigate.

An interim report, seen by The Telegraph, details whistleblower complaints about a “toxic” workplace culture and raises concerns about the “widespread use” of charity cash which has not been adequately verified.

It raises concern about “significant payments” to the founders, including the Very Reverend Dr Patrick Sookhdeo and his wife Rosemary, who lawyers found received £1.3 million from the charity.

The couple and another founding member Caroline Kerslake are currently suspended. They are one side of the split at the organisation whilst Mr Frost and Lord Reading are on the other.

Ms Kerslake was the subject of whistleblower complaints that alleged she had contributed to a “culture of fear” in the office but the investigation said that they could not find “substantial evidence of wrongdoing” or behaviour that would “justify her removal from the charity”.

Mr Frost was dismissed earlier this year amid the financial impropriety allegations after it emerged that he had been struck off the register of lawyers in 2022 in his native South Africa for defrauding his clients.

The latest allegations reveal that in May 2021 Lord Reading, who remains on the board of some of the connected organisations, received a £50,000 payment from one of the charities in the group which was recorded as a “grant” so he could “continue his vital ministry in serving charitable work”.

The investigation by Crowell found “from subsequent emails that the funding purpose was known and is referred to as to “cover urgent legal fees for the defamation case”.

That month film had emerged of a Zoom meeting in which Lord Reading offered to secure access to the Kremlin for undercover reporters working for the Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches posing as executives from a South Korean gold investment business.

The marquess said that Prince Michael, who attended part of the meeting, had a de facto role as “Her Majesty’s unofficial ambassador to Russia” and had “real credibility” with Putin.

In response to the article, Prince Michael said he has “no special relationship with Putin who he has not had contact with since 2003 and his “good friend” Lord Reading made “suggestions” which he “would not have wanted, or been able, to fulfil”.

Lord Reading, who attended Eton with the prince and is the godfather to his son, Viscount Erleigh, said that he “made a mistake and over-promised”.

The marquess, who told reporters that he had met with Putin a couple of times, has a long history of links to Russia and was previously an agent for oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who was found dead in his Berkshire home in 2013, a year after losing a legal case against Roman Abramovich.

It does not appear that Lord Reading pursued legal action over the story and the interim investigation reveals that it appears in reality the £50,000 “was utilised to cover rent payments”.

Investigators are also examining payments to Lady Reading totalling £27,000, and payments of £97,899 to Lord Reading from 2016 to 2020 including £15,000 for a car.

The report notes that he “also received payments which were used for his rent between February 2016 and January 2021” which were described as payments to assist him “continuing his valuable charitable work raising the plight of Christian communities worldwide”.

It later emerged that the payments were only covering a third of his rent, believed to be for his home in Cirencester.

Further payments to Lord Reading of almost £35,000 and a grant to purchase hearing aids are also being looked at by the law firm, which expects to complete its work in the coming weeks.

Lord Reading has cooperated with the investigation. A spokesman for the charity said that the figures “are disputed by Lord Reading” and that the “report is ‘interim’ and therefore subject to change”.

He added that Lord Reading has “been supportive of a thorough and detailed independent investigation into the serious allegations made by whistleblowers into Patrick Sookhdeo, Rosemary Sookhdeo and Caroline Kerslake” which are the focus of the report.

The report identifies payments to the Sookhdeos by various charities within the group of more than £1.3 million between 2009 and 2024.

This includes payments to lawyers who acted for Dr Sookhdeo when he was charged with sexually assaulting a female employee. He was convicted of the offence in 2015 and of intimidating a witness in the case. He continues to maintain his innocence.

Bank transfers

Lawyers are also examining payments to the couple of almost £500,000 from the sale of a property, and of hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of bank transfers.

They are also examining “perception from staff that Patrick Sookhdeo uses his power and control over how funds are distributed by the various charities within the Barnabas group of ministries, in order to obtain non-pecuniary benefits for himself”.

This includes honorary titles bestowed upon him by organisations which have received funding from the Barnabas group of charities.

The interim report notes that the founders have not cooperated with the investigation, but The Telegraph understands that they have since written to lawyers promising to provide a detailed explanation.

A source close to them said that the payments to the Sookhdeos’ actually span three decades and are mostly made up of ring-fenced donations made by supporters specifically to support the couple in lieu of salaries.

A spokesman for the charity said that they could not comment on the figures whilst the investigation was ongoing, adding: “The Charity Commission and other statutory bodies are involved, this is a very live issue that we hope will be resolved soon.”

He continued: “The Barnabas Family of charities continues to do great work supporting some of the most oppressed and marginalised people. The staff team, our supporters and other stakeholders are committed to restoring trust in what we do.

“The independent investigation is ongoing, and if it reveals that there has been any financial wrongdoing, then we are committed to recovering it.”