Chabad UK
| Chabad UK
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Registered charity (removed) |
| Founded | 26 March 2007 (as Brocho Vhatzlocho Limited) |
| Dissolved | 30 August 2023 (removed from Charity Commission register) |
| Registration ID | 1118547 (Charity Commission); company 06058021 |
| Headquarters | 53–55 Oldhill Street, London N16 6LU (historic) |
| Key people | Edward Cohen (manager / administrator) |
Chabad UK was an English registered charity (number 1118547) and company limited by guarantee (06058021). It is not part of Chabad Lubavitch UK (charity 227638) or of the worldwide Chabad-Lubavitch movement.[1][2]
Registration and name
The charity was registered on 26 March 2007 under its former name Brocho Vhatzlocho Limited. The name Chabad UK was adopted on 15 December 2011.[3] The company was incorporated on 18 January 2007; Companies House records the name change from Brocho Vhatzlocho Limited on 23 December 2011. The company was dissolved on 7 January 2025.[4]
Stated objects included advancement of the Orthodox Jewish faith and religious education, and relief of poverty among members of the Jewish faith.[3] The historic operating address was 53–55 Oldhill Street, Stamford Hill.[5]
Linked charities
A Charity Commission class inquiry covered Chabad UK and seven linked charities that shared trustees at various times:[1][3]
- Havenpoint Limited (291213) — registered 10 June 1985; removed 4 January 2013 when assets were transferred to Chabad UK
- Pikuach Nefesh Limited (1115619) — registered 28 July 2006
- Worldwide Hatzala Ltd (1115623) — registered 31 July 2006
- Ozer Dalim Limited (1118537) — registered 26 March 2007
- Mamosh Worldwide Limited (1118730) — registered 10 April 2007; company previously named Society of Friends of Chabad Worldwide Limited
- Or Simcha (1119522) — registered 6 June 2007; company later renamed Chabad of UK Limited
- Havenpoint Worldwide (1122120) — registered 28 December 2007; removed June 2011 and reinstated May 2012
Criminal case
On 21 June 2019 Edward Cohen, the manager of the charities, was convicted in his absence at Southwark Crown Court of two counts of money laundering, theft and supplying false or misleading information to the Commission.[6] The Metropolitan Police said nine companies of the group (seven registered charities) processed more than £10.3 million between March 2012 and September 2014, mostly from counterfeit medication sales.[6] He was sentenced on 4 July 2019 to nine years and nine months in total.[7]
David Cohen, his son and a former company director of Chabad UK, was cleared of money laundering and of the Commission false-information charge, but convicted of benefits-related false information.[8][7][4]
Charity Commission inquiry
The inquiry, opened 13 June 2014 and published 16 March 2020, found that the charities "were used for a non-charitable purpose and as a conduit to launder the proceeds of crime", that over £9 million passed through their accounts between January 2012 and May 2014 while most returns declared nil, and that two unnamed trustees were removed and disqualified in 2016.[3][1]
Chabad UK was removed from the register on 30 August 2023. More than £199,000 held from the charity was remitted to Alte Feiga Trust (1126587).[9]
Relation to Chabad-Lubavitch
The Commission stated that Chabad UK is a separate charity from Chabad Lubavitch UK and that the inquiry was not connected to CL-UK or any other Chabad organisations.[1] Chabad Lubavitch UK's public statement said it was "entirely unrelated in any way whatsoever" to Chabad UK and that the similar name had caused "concern, confusion and reputational damage for many years".[2] After police raids in September 2014, a Chabad-Lubavitch spokesperson told Jewish News that lawyers had made "numerous attempts" to stop Chabad UK fundraising without clarifying that it was not part of the official organisation.[5]
No shared directors were found between Chabad UK (06058021) and Lubavitch (UK) Limited (02932344), the corporate trustee of Chabad Lubavitch UK.[10] Official CL-UK premises are Lubavitch House, 107–115 Stamford Hill (N16 5RP), not Oldhill Street.[11]
Company officers (selected)
Companies House officers of 06058021 have included David Theodore Cohen (director, 18 January 2007 – 31 December 2014), Jacob Josef Schnaidman (director/secretary until 31 August 2016), and later appointees including Isaac Taieb, Meir Cohen and Natan Hirsch.[4]
Later companies using the group's names
After the companies of the inquiry charities were dissolved, new companies were registered under some of the same names. None of them is a registered charity.[12]
- Chabad UK (16358181) was incorporated on 1 April 2025, three months after the original Chabad UK company (06058021) was dissolved on 7 January 2025. Its registered office is 170 Osbaldeston Road, London N16, and Rabbi Eliezer Bindiger is its director and secretary.[13]
- Pikuach Nefesh (16361867) was incorporated on 2 April 2025 at the same address, also with Bindiger as director and secretary. The original Pikuach Nefesh Limited company had been dissolved on 11 February 2025.[14]
- Universal Relief Alliance (08508154), named after a working name of Or Simcha, was incorporated on 29 April 2013. Its director from incorporation until 1 May 2023 was recorded as Chaim Cohen, born March 1952, at 26 Paget Road, London N16. Bindiger was a director from 1 January 2023, and the company was struck off on 4 March 2025.[15] A charitable incorporated organisation formerly called Universal Relief Alliance Charity, and now Chabad of UK Community Centre (1202560), was registered in 2023 with Bindiger as chair.[16]
Bindiger was also a director of the Or Simcha company, by then named Chabad of UK Limited (06231876), from 2 January 2024 until its dissolution, and is a director of Chabad of UK Community Centre Ltd and Beis Menachem - Beis Moshiach UK.[17]
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Charity Commission, "'Unscrupulous pattern of dishonesty' at 8 charities…", 16 March 2020 (withdrawn 14 November 2023).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chabad Lubavitch UK, "STATEMENT".
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Charity Commission, "Charity Inquiry: Chabad UK (1118547) and seven other charities", 16 March 2020 (withdrawn 16 March 2022).
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Companies House, Chabad UK (06058021), accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Charity accused of 'misleading' community over name", Jewish News, 3 September 2014.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Aamna Mohdin, "Man jailed for laundering more than £10m through Jewish charity", The Guardian, 5 July 2019 (amended 9 July 2019).
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Ben Weich, "Charedi man sentenced…", Jewish Chronicle, 4 July 2019.
- ↑ Ben Weich, "Orthodox man convicted over £10 million charity scam", Jewish Chronicle, 26 June 2019.
- ↑ Harriet Whitehead, "£200,000 transferred from former charity to new organisation following statutory inquiry", Civil Society, 26 July 2024.
- ↑ Companies House, Lubavitch (UK) Limited – officers, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ Charity Commission, CHABAD LUBAVITCH UK – 227638.
- ↑ Charity Commission for England and Wales, Register of Charities – full register download, data extract dated 6 November 2026.
- ↑ Companies House, CHABAD UK (16358181) – officers, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ Companies House, PIKUACH NEFESH (16361867) – officers, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ Companies House, UNIVERSAL RELIEF ALLIANCE (08508154) – officers, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ Charity Commission for England and Wales, Chabad of UK Community Centre – 1202560, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ Companies House, Eliezer Lippa Bindiger – appointments, accessed 6 November 2026.