The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Deputy Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

EMBATTLED HeadKnowles Foundation co-founder Lia Head-Rigby maintained she committed no impropriety after crowdfunding giant GoFundMe told The Tribune she withdrew, but did not transfer, more than $200,000 in donations to the hurricane relief organisation.

In an interview with this newspaper yesterday, Mrs Head-Rigby insisted “money went quickly” post-Hurricane Dorian as she spearheaded relief efforts in the United States. “The funds that the donors gave, went to massive use here in Florida,” she said.

“(It went) to push relief to Grand Bahama, Abaco, and Nassau from the Miami Mayor’s Office, pallets of relief on the Betty K that went to New Providence Community Centre, to the 800 plus flights, including Medevac flights, passenger flights, animal rescue flights and cargo relief flights.

“We spent that $200k fast as it should have been.”

Asked if the expenditure of these funds was documented, she said: “I have everything documented – audited by the CPA.”

On Thursday, GoFundMe said it will donate $217,645 to the HeadKnowles Foundation.

The pledge signalled its support for Gina Knowles who has sued Mrs Head-Rigby and her husband to recover the funds in question.

GoFundMe’s Director of North America Communications Bobby Whithorne in a statement accused Mrs Head-Rigby of allegedly withdrawing funds that she did not send to the foundation as mandated.

His statement to The Tribune came after Ms Knowles’s suit was filed alleging the couple have withheld Hurricane Dorian GoFundMe donations. Mrs Head-Rigby denied the allegations in the lawsuit last week, saying her “hands are clean”.

The GoFundMe campaign attracted nearly $1.5m in donations since the deadly September storm.

Mr Whithorne said because the organisation’s payment processor, WePay, does not support direct transfers to the Bahamas, the funds were transferred to Mrs Head-Rigby’s US Bank of America Account and were then supposed to be transferred to the HeadKnowles Foundation locally.

“To be clear, more than one million dollars raised was transferred from Lia Head-Rigby to the benefiting organisation named on the fundraiser, the HeadKnowles Foundation,” Mr Whithorne said.

“Lia Head-Rigby withdrew but then did not transfer $217,645 to the HeadKnowles Foundation. In the interim, WePay froze the remaining balance of $246,483,” he said.

The statement continued: “In order to protect GoFundMe donors, GoFundMe will donate $217,645 to the HeadKnowles Foundation while they try to recover the funds from Lia Head-Rigby. We encourage WePay to release the remaining $246,483 directly to the HeadKnowles Foundation. Our goal is to make sure every dollar donated is transferred to the HeadKnowles Foundation, as was stated in the campaign. GoFundMe will continue to work with all parties involved to help resolve the matter. At this point, the remaining balance is with WePay.”

Mr Whithorne said his company prefers sending funds directly to organisations, but can’t do that for Bahamas-based groups because of the limitations of WePay.

“The money raised must be transferred to a bank account located in the US, and then transferred to the account of the Bahamas,” he said.

“GoFundMe’s priority is to fully protect all donors on the platform and to ensure the money raised goes to the intended use, in this case to the HeadKnowles Foundation for hurricane relief in the Bahamas.”

It is unclear if the suit will spark any investigation, if any, by the Office of the Attorney General. Up to press time The Tribune was told that no action had been filed in New Providence.