Fundraisers dispute misappropriation allegations

The principals of an online fundraising project are in dispute over questions that donations might have been misappropriated, Beijing Times reported on Monday.

The fundraising project launched on July 5, 2013, to collect money by selling a virtual product named Baixue Coke online for 3 yuan (48 cents) per bottle to raise funds for Bai Xue, a resident of Anshan, Liaoning province, who was suffering aplastic anemia and needed money for a kidney transplant.

In the 10 days after the project launched, it collected 480,000 yuan, which was used to pay for Bai's transplant.

Huang Weifu, who proposed the idea of collecting money for Bai Xue by selling a virtual product online, formed a volunteer team with six other people he got to know via the Internet and jointly launched the project with the Chinese Red Cross Foundation, aiming to aid Bai and other poor patients who suffered the same disease.

Later the project became the Life Angel Fund, which was praised by the foundation as a very good charitable fund.

However, Huang said on his micro blog on April 28, 2014, four days after Bai died, that he was responsible for Bai's death and for funds being misappropriated.

Because of Huang's online post, some netizens questioned why the foundation, which was listed as an official manager of the fund, did not better manage the fund, and whether it paid enough money in time for Bai's follow-up treatment.

Of the fund, 120,000 yuan was used to aid another patient of aplastic anemia on Feb 19, 2014, which some considered to be a misuse of the donations.

On May 24, an open roundtable was held in Beijing, at which the foundation denied it did not pay money for Bai's treatment or that any money had been misappropriated. Huang did not attend the meeting.

Experts said China urgently needs a charity law to standardize such charitable donations and manage the donated money, and charity institutions should clearly report the whereabouts of donations to the donors.