Over the weekend the Sydney Morning Herald reported that the consumer watchdog for the Australian province of Victoria has ordered an independent audit of the Shane Warne Foundation following reports of inconsistent accounting and administration practices at the organisation, which assists ill or disadvantaged children.
Forty-six-year-old Warne, an Australian cricketing legend and erstwhile online poker ambassador for 888Poker, has advised reporters that the Foundation’s board has not yet reached a decision on the charity’s future.
The newspaper reported that inconsistencies were raised regarding the Foundation’s financials last year and that there are concerns at the charity’s “inconsistent” accounting practices and administration.
News of the audit follows the resignation of a newly-appointed chief executive, Emma Coleman, along with one of the charity’s ambassadors, reality television star Lydia Schiavello.
A major charity poker tournament – the Joe Hachem and Shane Warne Poker Tournament – has also been cancelled.
Australian newspaper reports claim that Warne had to defend the Foundation last year against claims that it attempted to prevent the release of documents showing that it donated just 16 cents of every dollar raised.
Back then Warne commented that the Foundation had always operated correctly, but that “…in the last few years there have been some problems with financial numbers for the events we have been running. It was not done through malice or incompetence.”