Yes, indeed.
If you'll allow me, I can read a relatively short email, which was in response to your questions.
There's a recital at the beginning to the clerk of the committee.
Please find below the information requested:
On March 1, 2023, upon the initiative of the President and CEO Pascale Fournier and with the approval of the Board's Executive Committee, the Foundation sent a cheque in the amount of $140,000 to reimburse the donation that had been received by the Foundation in two $70,000 tranches in 2016 and 2017. The cheque was signed by directors Bruce McNiven and Peter Sahlas, drawn to the order of Millennium Golden Eagle International (Canada), the Canadian corporation that made the donations, and sent via Canada Post....
I'm going to summarize because I know you're time is limited. I'll just whip through some of these paragraphs.
The foundation issued a statement the same day declaring that it had been refunded, but on March 21, 2023, after three failed delivery attempts, Canada Post returned to the foundation the envelope containing the reimbursement cheque.
After the resignation of the president and CEO on April 10, 2023, the directors learned that in early April, the foundation staff reporting to the president had contacted the Bank of Montreal to confirm the origin of the two payments back in 2016 and 2017. The bank confirmed on April 23 that both payments were received by electronic transfer from the Canadian corporate entity listed on the CRA receipts that had been issued by the foundation, and that the two payments originated from its Montreal—that is the donor's—bank account, which was still open in 2023 and in good standing.
This information had never been provided to the board, which had recently been led to believe that one of the two $70,000 payments may have originated in China and that the foundation's CRA receipts may have been improperly issued.
On April 12, 2023, the $140,000 cheque that had been returned to the foundation by Canada Post was delivered directly to the donor's downtown Montreal branch of the Bank of Montreal. The cheque was provided to the donor's account manager at the branch, who deposited the cheque immediately and confirmed the deposit in writing.
The foundation is taking the appropriate steps with the CRA in regard to the above. The CRA receipts that were issued in 2016 and 2017 were both issued to the same Canadian corporation, Millennium Golden Eagle International (Canada). The first receipt was addressed overseas and the second receipt, approximately one year later, was addressed to the corporation's Canadian address.