£1m and valuable violin given away after probe into sanctioned businessman's charities

A 'culturally significant' violin valued at £150,000 and £1.3million in cash has been redistributed to charity after being seized from foundations founded by a government sanctioned businessman. Regulator The Charity Commission recovered the prized musical instrument, made by esteemed Italian violin maker Riccardo Antoniazzi in 1912, and £1,388,000 from after Russian-born businessman Dr Vitacheslav Kantor, known as Moshe, was named a "designated person" under the UK’s Russia Sanctions regime in April 2022. The violin, valued at £150,810 in 2019, has since been gifted to a registered charity. Billionaire Dr Kantor, 72, set up and funded both the Kantor Foundation and Kantor Charitable Foundation to provide grants to charitable projects and causes, but they have since been wound up following the probe. Joshua Farbridge, Head of compliance and visits and inspections at the Charity Commission, today said: "Once designated, an individual cannot legally act as a trustee. "Dr Kantor’s failure to step down immediately, his decision to ignore the Commission and failure to cooperate, amounted to misconduct and/or mismanagement. It also fell below our expectations of trustees. As a result of our investigations, we have now wound up both charities. "We are pleased some good can come to other charities and causes as a result of our intervention. Instead of assets lying dormant, or owed Gift Aid lost, we’ve been able to see a much-needed boost of over £1.3m into the sector, and a culturally significant musical instrument gifted to a charity furthering musical education." It comes after the Commission opened inquiries into charities connected to Dr Kantor, including the Kantor Charitable Foundation (KCF), Kantor Foundation (KF) and the World Holocaust Forum Foundation (WHFF). The regulator froze charity bank accounts and prevented the trustee from parting with any of the charity’s property without the Commission’s prior consent. And then in May 2022, the regulator removed Dr Kantor as a trustee of WHFF meaning he was automatically disqualified from being a trustee and ceased to be a director of Kantor Trustees. The regulator also appointed Interim Managers to both charities and identified a number of outstanding Gift Aid claims were owed. After settling the charities’ liabilities, the Interim Managers distributed the remaining funds via charitable grants to several organisations, in line with the charities’ purposes and in June 2023 the regulator concluded that the Kantor Foundation and Kantor Charitable Foundation were no longer viable and that they should be wound up and dissolved. It is understood this view was reached after experts found Dr Kantor was the sole donor and it would be unlikely that either charity could secure future funding. It was aso discoveredd that there were no trustees to run the charities following Dr Kantor’s designation and subsequent resignation of the other directors from the Kantor Trustees company. And it was determined that reputational damage arising from the designation meant it would be unlikely the charities could resolve these matters through fundraising or recruitment. The Charity Commission also found that Dr Kantor "was responsible for misconduct and/or mismanagement in the administration of both charities for failing to proactively resign following his designation" and "Dr Kantor’s failure to cooperate with the regulator’s investigation also amounted to misconduct and/or mismanagement." The charities have both since been wound up and removed from the public Register of Charities.