Per Thiessen
Danish finance professional; Treasurer of Stichting Mayday Rescue Foundation (September 2016–February 2018); Finance Director of Mayday Rescue entities (2015–2018)
| Per Fredslund Thiessen | |
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| Nationality | Danish |
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| Occupation | Finance director; treasurer; non-profit governance |
| Known for | Treasurer of the Dutch Stichting Mayday Rescue Foundation; Finance Director roles linked to Mayday Rescue entities supporting the White Helmets |
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| Website | |
Per Fredslund Thiessen is a Danish finance professional who served as Treasurer of the Stichting Mayday Rescue Foundation (the Dutch non-profit that channelled international funding to the White Helmets / Syria Civil Defence) from September 2016 to February 2018. His LinkedIn profile records that he was Finance Director of “Mayday Rescue” from September 2015 to August 2018. The discrepancy in dates has been noted in detailed reconstructions of Mayday’s corporate structure: the Treasurer role on the Stichting covered only September 2016–February 2018, indicating that the longer Finance Director appointment related to one or more of the commercial Mayday Rescue entities controlled by James Le Mesurier (Mayday Rescue FZ-LLC in Dubai and/or the Turkish company).[1]
Role at Mayday Rescue
Mayday Rescue was established by former British Army officer James Le Mesurier to train, equip and support the White Helmets. Multiple legal entities existed: the Dutch Stichting Mayday Rescue Foundation (registered 2015), Mayday Rescue FZ-LLC in Dubai (2014) and a Turkish company. UK Foreign Office payments of £43 million (2015–2018) for White Helmets support were made to the Dubai commercial entity rather than the Dutch foundation. Thiessen was one of the early supervisory directors appointed in September 2016 alongside Le Mesurier, Katie Plathonoff (Secretary) and Rupert Davis (Chairman) to meet Dutch governance and transparency requirements while the Stichting was receiving payments from the Dutch Foreign Ministry. On 13 February 2018 Thiessen and Plathonoff were removed; Davis ceased to be Chairman but remained a director; and Emma Winberg was appointed director.[1]
Thiessen is recorded as the submitter of International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) transaction records for the Stichting between December 2016 and December 2017 (last submission 31 January 2018). In October 2019 he declined to answer questions about his role. The Mayday entities received more than €120 million from Western governments (including the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and others) between 2014 and 2018; the organisation later faced allegations of financial irregularities, high executive salaries, cash withdrawals and inadequate governance, culminating in bankruptcy proceedings and the appointment of a new chair (Cornelis Vrieswijk) in January 2020 at the request of donors. Le Mesurier died in Istanbul in November 2019.[1][2]
See also
- Mayday Rescue
- James Le Mesurier
- Emma Winberg
- Rupert Davis
- Katie Plathonoff
- White Helmets
- Stichting Mayday Rescue Foundation
External links
- SyriaPropagandaMedia briefing on Le Mesurier / Mayday (December 2019)
- Guardian long read, October 2020
- Mayday Rescue IATI records (submitted by Thiessen)
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media, James Le Mesurier: a reconstruction of his business activities and covert role, 16 December 2019.
- ↑ Martin Chulov, How Syria’s disinformation wars destroyed the co-founder of the White Helmets The Guardian, 27 October 2020.