If ill gotten gains are the source, should charities reject gifts?ST. CATHARINES -- Should charitable organizations be expected to give up gifts derived from ill-gotten gains? The legal question is: can they do so voluntarily? The issue has been raised by a group of us investors that is suing Ridley College
Ridley College is a co-educational boarding and day university-preparatory school located in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. a prestigious, private school, located in this city. They are trying to recover $1.5 million (USD USD In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the U.S. Dollar. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. ) that was contributed to the College by Toronto business man Patrick Lett who has been sanctioned by the Ontario Securities Commission The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) is a regulatory agency which administers and enforces securities legislation in the Canadian province of Ontario. The OSC is an Ontario Crown corporation which reports to the Ontario legislature through the Minister of Finance. . The suit may the first in which a charity faces questions about the source of their gifts and the outcome could set a precedent for all types of charities. The American investors, allege that Lett defrauded them out of $10-million, and that Ridley's gift came out of funds they entrusted to Lett. In 2004 the Ontario Securities Commission sanctioned Lett with a 10-year trading ban and a 15-year prohibition from serving as an officer or director. The American investor group alleges that the school "had knowledge of circumstances which would have led a reasonable person to inquire about the source of Lett's funds and Ridley failed to make such inquiries," according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. documents filed in the Ontario Superior Court. Ridley argues that it acted legally and "had no duty to make independent inquiries as to the source of the funds." Queen's University Queen's University, at Kingston, Ont., Canada; nondenominational; coeducational; founded 1841 as Queen's College. It achieved university status in 1912. It has faculties of arts and sciences, education, law, medicine, and applied science, as well as schools of also faces questions about donations from former Hollinger International Inc. executive David Radler F. David Radler (born 1944 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian executive and close associate of Conrad Black for 36 years. Radler was once president of Ravelston Corporation, a privately owned corporation owned by Black and Radler to control their former newspaper empire. , who pleaded guilty in a Chicago court to defrauding the company. Queen's University announced that it will return a $1-million (CAD) gift from Radler voluntarily. Whether a charity has the fight to return a gift, especially after a tax donation has been claimed, is still open to question. |
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