Angelina Jolie was reportedly “extremely uncomfortable” with The HALO Trust before she left.
The mine-clearing charity was a favourite of the late Princess Diana’s, whose humanitarian visit to a minefield in Angola in 1997 shot the philanthropic organisation to international fame. Princess Diana’s son Prince Harry followed in his mother’s footsteps, visiting Angola for the charity’s 25th anniversary appeal in 2013.
But before Angelina formally resigned from doing work with The HALO Trust in May 2014, it’s claimed she caught wind of financial dealings that prompted her decision to leave.
“She left because she was extremely uncomfortable with the actions of the trustees,” a source told the UK’s The Times.
Apparently the trustees were using charity funds to pay themselves £500 per day and some executives paid their children’s boarding school fees with money raised for the company.
Two of The HALO Trust trustees also allegedly took out £120,000 to pay for a review of the organisation’s “structural, remuneration and governance arrangements”, a sum Angelina thought was mismanaged.
“The main thing was the trustees paying themselves. What she said was, ‘If those trustees want to do a review, pay for it yourselves’,” the insider noted.
It’s claimed Angelina expressed her discontent with the plan to pay chairwoman of trustees Amanda Pullinger, a former hedgefund manager, and author Simon Conway £850 a day for the review.
According to The HALO Trust’s chief executive James Cowan, Angelina participated in a unanimous vote approving the expensive review and left so she could “do other things”.
Angelina is a philanthropic icon. The actress has been working as Special Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees since 2012.
She has most recently called attention to the displacement of Syrian refugees, visiting the Midyat Refugee Camp in Turkey with nine-year-old daughter Shiloh in tow, the child she shares with husband Brad Pitt. Angelina also discussed the plight of women who are victims of warzone rape.
