Kingsway International Christian Centre

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Kingsway International Christian Centre
Information
Contact particulars
Address	London, England
Country	United Kingdom
Portal:Christianity

Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC) is based in London, England and was established in 1992 with 200 adults and 100 children. It currently has up to 12,000 people in attendance at the main church every Sunday^[1] The Church is located on a 9.5 acre site in Hackney, London, close to the site of the proposed 2012 Olympics Village. The Church is Pastored by Matthew Ashimolowo.

KICC will have to vacate the site by November 2006 in order to make way for proposed developments for the 2012 London Olympics.^[2]

[edit] Charity Commission Enquiry

The charity behind Kingsway International Christian Centre (The King's Ministries Trust) was investigated by the Charity Commission of England and Wales between 2002 and 2005. A report of the inquiry was released in October 2005. The report concluded that there had been serious misconduct and mismanagement in the administration of the charity. At an early stage in the investigation, it was considered that the charity's assets were at risk and control was removed from the existing trustees and placed in the hands of an independent external company (the accountancy and management consultancy practice KPMG), who regularised the charity's affairs.

The report alleged that Matthew Ashimolowo acted as both a trustee and a paid employee of the charity, which is against UK charity law, and was responsible for approving payments and benefits to himself and his wife, Yemisi, totalling more than £384,000. Benefits received included free accommodation for himself and family,including an £80,000 car and purchase of a Florida timeshare property for £13,000 using a charity credit card, and over half a million pounds paid out to Ashimolowo's private companies, which were operated from church property and had unclear business relationships with the charity.