The Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries International has accused the UK Charity Commission of bias and being discriminatory in its report that alleged the church engaged in financial mismanagement.
MFM denied that its UK branch’s accounts were frozen due to financial mismanagement by its trustees.
According to a report by The Cable, the UK Charity Commission had frozen assets belonging to MFM over transparency concerns.
The commission said it opened an inquiry after financial concerns were identified, including the alleged misappropriation of charity funds.
The inquiry found that trustees in the MFM charity wing could not demonstrate that they had adequate oversight or control over more than 100 bank accounts operated by individual branches.
But reacting to the allegations in a statement on Saturday by its spokesperson, Dan Aibangbe, the church described the commission’s action as “a gross distortion of facts and a deliberate mischaracterisation of a closed chapter.”
MFM insisted that no wrongdoing or fraud was ever found against its trustees.
“The issues raised were related to administrative governance, not a finding of fraudulent activity by the trustee body. This matter is old and not a fresh development. It is misleading to present it as a current scandal,” the church said.
In the statement titled ‘A Point-by-Point Rebuttal: Setting the Record Straight on the MFM–UK Charity Commission Matter,’ the church said none of its bank accounts were frozen, describing such claims as “a complete fabrication.”
The statement added, “No bank accounts belonging to MFM were ever frozen. The commission’s report identified no evidence of systemic financial misconduct by the trustees. The entire process was a display of overreach, not an exposure of fraud.”
MFM maintained that the Charity Commission acted “not on concrete evidence but on rumours and gossip,” claiming that the regulator’s expectations of uncovering large-scale fraud proved unfounded after it gained access to the church’s financial records.
“When the Commission examined the records, it found nothing of the sort. Rather than close the case honourably, it embarked on a fault-finding mission, highlighting minor administrative discrepancies to justify its intrusion,” it added.
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The church further described the commission’s actions as part of a pattern of procedural flaws, recalling that MFM had previously challenged the regulator’s methods in a British court and secured a judgment against what it described as “improper procedures and overreach.”
MFM disclosed that following the probe, the Charity Commission appointed an interim manager to oversee MFM’s UK operations, but the individual’s five-year tenure was more about revenue generation than stewardship.
“The interim manager showed no genuine interest in the church’s ministry, never visiting a single MFM branch in the UK throughout his tenure. Yet, he charged the church a staggering £2 million for his ‘services’—a colossal fee for a process that yielded no evidence of wrongdoing,” the church said.
“The five-year ordeal was not about protection but predation. What the Commission spent half a decade attempting to prove could have been resolved through cooperative guidance in a single month.”
The church emphasised that the concerns identified by the Commission were administrative in nature, arising largely from the rapid growth of MFM’s UK operations, which had outpaced its volunteer-run governance framework.
“The most powerful testament to the church’s integrity is this: not a single penny was mismanaged by the trustees,” Aibangbe said. “The issues raised were purely related to governance and record-keeping in a fast-growing organisation, not the diversion or theft of funds.
“Crucially, the leadership was already aware of the administrative gaps and had started taking steps to professionalise its governance structure. The Commission’s premature and heavy-handed investigation punished the church for being a victim of its own success,” the church added.
Describing the investigation as “a biased, costly, and ultimately baseless persecution,” MFM said the experience reflected deeper prejudices against African-founded churches operating in the UK.
The church said it remains committed to transparency and accountability but called for fair treatment of faith-based organisations, regardless of their ethnic or cultural origins.
“The entire ordeal reeks of discriminatory and arrogant oversight,” Aibangbe said. “It was a display of institutional overreach, leveraging state power to burden and punish a thriving faith community.
“The truth has prevailed, and the church marches on—stronger and wiser,” it added.
(Punch)
