Cohen Charitable Trust
Bournemouth trust with "strong connections with Israel" whose 2019 grants went mainly to Orthodox Jewish charities; it transferred its funds to the Jesbrow Foundation in 2020
| Cohen Charitable Trust
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Trust (removed) |
| Founded | 1979-11-05 (registered) |
| Dissolved | 2020-08-12 (removed from the register: Funds transferred (gi)) |
| Registration ID | Registered charity 278703 |
| Headquarters | Bournemouth BH1 (2019 accounts) |
| Area served | Dorset, Israel |
The Cohen Charitable Trust was established by a trust deed of 1 March 1979 and registered on 5 November 1979; on 12 August 2020 it transferred its funds to the Jesbrow Foundation (1170816) and was removed.[1] The register said it "operates throughout England & Wales and has strong connections with Israel", with areas of operation in Dorset and Israel; its final figures, for the year to 31 March 2020, were income of £66,119 and spending of £87,004.[1] The archived accounts for 2018/19 name the trustees as Mrs C A Karet, Dr B Karet (to 28 October 2018), Rabbi A Jesner and Mrs P Seal (from 3 July 2018), with a principal address in Bournemouth BH1; reserves were £1,850,863.[2] Grants of £40,200 (2018: £29,500) went to 13 charities, including United Talmudical Associates Ltd £20,000, the Society of Friends of the Torah £10,000, the London Soup Kitchen £5,000, the Bournemouth Hebrew Centre £1,500 and the RNLI £1,000.[2]
Objects and activities
The charity's registered objects read: "FOR SUCH CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS OR PURPOSES AS THE TRUSTEES THINK FIT."[3]
The register describes its activities as: "The charity's objects are very broad and can support such charitable institutions or purposes as the Trustees think fit. The charity operates throughout England & Wales and has strong connections with Israel."[3]
Register classifications: General Charitable Purposes, Religious Activities, Human Rights/religious Or Racial Harmony/equality Or Diversity, Other Charitable Purposes.[3]
Areas of operation recorded on the register: Dorset, Israel.[3]
Trustees
The register extract holds no trustee records for removed charities.
Finances
| Financial year end | Income | Expenditure |
|---|---|---|
| 2017-03-31 | £42,759 | £122,079 |
| 2018-03-31 | £32,311 | £34,793 |
| 2019-03-31 | £88,489 | £48,826 |
| 2020-03-31 | £66,119 | £87,004 |
Source: register annual-return history.[3]
Archived accounts
Accounts no longer on the live register were found in the UK Government Web Archive:
- Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2015[4]
- Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2016[5]
- Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2017[6]
- Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2018[7]
- Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2019[8]
Funding in Israel
- No Israeli recipient is named in the 2018/19 accounts; grants not individually listed totalled £2,700.[2]
Israeli partners
No Israeli partner is named.[2]
Activity beyond the Green Line and support for the IDF
Findings are graded by confidence. "Partner" findings concern the Israeli recipient organisation, not proven use of UK funds.
| Finding | Confidence |
|---|---|
| No place in Israel is named.[2] | Not established |
Support for the IDF: No IDF or military funding is stated.[2]
Controversies and regulatory action
- No Charity Commission inquiry naming this charity was found; it is not named in the 2025–2026 cheque-cashing class-inquiry announcements or statement of results, and the charities in the August 2026 settlements class inquiry have not been named.[9][10][11][12][13] The register shows it as removed, giving the reason "Funds transferred (gi)".[1]
Other registers and records
Scotland and Northern Ireland
No entry was found on the Scottish Charity Register for this charity (register export dated 14 October 2026, searched by name).[14] No entry was found on the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland register (API name searches returned zero results).[15]
The Gazette
Searches of The Gazette for "Cohen Charitable Trust" returned only notices concerning other people and bodies (such as the Waley-Cohen family); no insolvency, winding-up or strike-off notice naming the charity was found.[16]
Grants recorded by 360Giving
No grants received or made by this charity are recorded in 360Giving data.[17] Two records from the KPMG Foundation (£190,000 on 10 March 2021 and £145,000 on 23 March 2023) carry this charity number but name the recipient as "Cohen Trust" for a family-intervention project in Middlesbrough, made after the charity was removed in August 2020; they appear to be identifier errors in the source data and are excluded. A record from The Leathersellers' Foundation (£90,000 on 9 March 2022) carrying this charity number names the recipient as Youth Adventure Trust, a different charity, and is likewise excluded.
Sanctions screening
The charity's name, its current register trustees, trustees named on archived register pages, trustees and officers named in the accounts read for this profile and (for charitable companies) its Companies House officers were screened against the UK Sanctions List and the OFSI Consolidated List. No match was found. Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor (UK sanctions ID RUS1127) does not appear among this charity's trustees or officers.[18]
Land and property
The register records that the charity does not own or lease land or property.[3] No title registers were purchased; the HM Land Registry interactive search blocked automated access.[19]
Parliament
Hansard exact-phrase searches for "Cohen Charitable Trust" returned 0 contributions in total.[20]
Web archive
The UK Government Web Archive holds 1 archived Charity Commission register page used in this profile (cited in the sections above). The 2021 archived full print showed the status "Removed charity" and "Other regulators: not shown".[21]
External links
- No current official website.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Charity Commission, The Cohen Charitable Trust (278703): full print Register of Charities, retrieved 16 October 2026 ("12 August 2020: Funds transferred to 1170816 JESBROW FOUNDATION").
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Charity Commission, The Cohen Charitable Trust: accounts for the year ended 31 March 2019 UK Government Web Archive, capture of 04/01/2020.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Charity Commission for England and Wales, Register of Charities public extract (tables charity, charity_trustee, charity_annual_return_history, charity_area_of_operation, charity_classification, charity_other_names), extract dated 14 October 2026.
- ↑ Cohen Charitable Trust accounts, year ended 2015-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200104).
- ↑ Cohen Charitable Trust accounts, year ended 2016-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200104).
- ↑ Cohen Charitable Trust accounts, year ended 2017-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200104).
- ↑ Cohen Charitable Trust accounts, year ended 2018-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200104).
- ↑ Cohen Charitable Trust accounts, year ended 2019-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200104).
- ↑ Charity Commission, Serious concerns over use of £22 million triggers investigation by charity regulator GOV.UK, 14 May 2025.
- ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator opens next phase of investigation into 105 charities connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 1 September 2025.
- ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator announces next charities to be investigated as part of inquiry connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 4 December 2025.
- ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator concludes investigation into 4 charities as class inquiry continues GOV.UK, 9 September 2026, with Statement of the results of a class inquiry (same date).
- ↑ Charity Commission, Charity regulator opens inquiry into charities working in illegal Israeli settlements GOV.UK, 5 August 2026 (a fact-finding statutory class inquiry initially involving 8 charities which "are not being publicly named at this time").
- ↑ Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, Scottish Charity Register download OSCR, export dated 14 October 2026; keyword search of the 25 batch-20 charity names found no matching Scottish registration (a name-only hit for "Sheila & Denis Cohen Charitable Trust" was not established to be connected with the Cohen Charitable Trust and is disregarded).
- ↑ Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, Register of charities search API CCNI, searched 16 October 2026 (keyword searches for each of the 25 batch-20 charity names returned zero results).
- ↑ The Gazette: notices matching 'Cohen Charitable Trust' The Gazette, searched 16 October 2026.
- ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-278703 360Giving, queried 16 October 2026.
- ↑ Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, UK Sanctions List (CSV); Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets (ConList.csv). Batch-20 screening covered 272 name strings: the 25 charity names, current register trustees, trustees named on archived register pages, Companies House officers of the five charitable companies, and trustees, examiners and other people and bodies named in the accounts and sources read for this batch; matching on surname plus forename tokens, reviewed manually. No forename-and-surname match for any person was found; token matches were surname-only coincidences (for example Weiss, Sara, Masri, Cohen) or generic words in organisation names (Limited, Company, Trust).
- ↑ HM Land Registry, Search for land and property information GOV.UK – the service returned HTTP 403 (bot protection) to automated access in October 2026; no titles were looked up or purchased. Candidate title numbers below come from the free CCOD / OCOD datasets (October 2026 release), not from paid title registers.
- ↑ UK Parliament, Hansard search API: contributions matching the exact phrase "Cohen Charitable Trust" Hansard, queried 16 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints; quoted-phrase search).
- ↑ Register entry 278703, full print (capture of 20210106) UK Government Web Archive.