The Charity Commission of the United Kingdom has frozen the assets of Mountain of Fire and Miracles, MFM, Ministries International, founded by Daniel Olukoya, following concerns over transparency and financial management.
In a statement released on Monday, the commission said it launched an official inquiry after detecting possible misuse of charitable funds.
Investigators discovered that MFM’s trustees failed to show proper supervision or control over more than 100 bank accounts operated independently by local branches.
“Many of the charity’s financial issues stemmed from its complex structure, which had grown from a handful of branches to over 90 locations nationwide, without the corresponding governance improvements,” the commission found.
The report further explained that local branches acted independently opening bank accounts, managing income, and handling funds without central oversight or timely reporting.
“Branches operated autonomously, opening bank accounts without central oversight and failing to report income in a timely manner.
This created substantial risks to charitable funds and resulted in inaccurate financial reporting.
“Additionally, branch offices were making significant financial decisions, including property purchases and lease agreements, without trustee knowledge or authorisation.”
According to the commission, this lack of governance led to financial losses within MFM’s charity operations.
“As a result of its findings, the Commission took action to freeze the charity’s assets to prevent further loss,” the report noted.
Attempts to get comments from Dan Aibangbe, MFM’s spokesperson, were unsuccessful.
Back in 2019, the UK Charity Commission had already appointed an interim manager to oversee MFM’s affairs due to ongoing financial irregularities and repeated late submissions of reports.
The same kind of intervention was also made with Christ Embassy, led by Chris Oyakhilome, after similar administrative and financial concerns arose.