Date set for report on Newmark cash scandal
THE INDEPENDENT review into financial irregularities at the Jewish Leadership Council during the period when Jeremy Newmark was chief executive is to be published by the end of next month.
A panel led by a retired judge, Her Honour Dawn Freedman, launched the investigation after the JC revealed, in February of this year, an internal audit showing that, while JLC chief executive, Mr Newmark had deceived the organisation out of tens of thousands of pounds.
In order to avoid a scandal, the JLC’s trustees — including Sir Mick Davis, now chief executive of the Conservative Party — decided to keep the matter a secret and not to call in the police.
In February, the Charity Commission confirmed it had not been told about allegations of financial impropriety made against Mr Newmark and said it had potentially serious concerns.
Once the report is published, the JLC’s trustees will meet to consider and comply with any obligations. The JLC — under the leadership of successor chief executive Simon Johnson and chairman Jonathan Goldstein — has committed to being fully transparent during the process and to publish the findings of the review once they receive it.
One reason for the delay in the publication of the report has been the process of “Maxwellisation”, in which people who are criticised in an official report are allowed to respond prior to publication.
Under the terms of reference for the review, the panel will consider whether the decisions taken by the 2013 Trustees were reasonable and taken in the best interests of the JLC.
They will also look into the question of the financial irregularities revealed by the 2013 internal report and consider if the JLC suffered a material loss in 2013.
The panel will also assess the current internal financial processes of the JLC.
Writing for the JC after its revelations about Mr Newmark and the subsequent cover-up, JLC chief executive Mr Johnson said the organisation owed it to the community “to get this right”. In its exposé of the scandal in February, the JC published emails showing how the then JLC chairman Sir Mick Davis had summoned the trustees to a meeting in September 2013 to discuss the “critical matter” of Mr Newmark. In one email, Sir Mick wrote to fellow trustees saying that Mr Newmark “recognised the serious nature of the issues raised” and had agreed a few days after the meeting that the “best course of action” was for him to resign on the grounds of his ill health.
But the emails also confirm that Sir Mick — along with several other trustees, including former United Synagogue president Stephen Pack — had serious concerns that the “true reason” for Mr Newmark’s departure after seven years at the helm of the charity would reach the public domain.
Other JLC trustees — including Bill Benjamin of UJIA, Steven Lewis of Jewish Care, Vivian Wineman of the Board of Deputies, James Libson of World Jewish Relief, Gerald Ronson of the Community Security Trust and Sir Trevor Chinn — were also updated on developments in emails sent by Sir Mick. Mr Newmark denies the allegations against him.
Mr Johnson said the JLC was now a very different organisation, “operationally and otherwise”.
“It not only has a new chief executive, but also a new chairman, Jonathan Goldstein — a former lawyer like myself — seven new trustees, and a new strategic direction.”
Mr Newmark, a Labour councillor in Hertsmere, subsequently resigned from his post as Jewish Labour Movement chair after financial irregularities there were reported to the police.
The JLC is now a very different organisation’