Posted on Joana Morais Blog.
I also know Matthew on twitter.
Published BY Matthew Steeples. 2011
I am Matthew Steeples and having seen this I thought I should explain how I came to be involved with a charity that turns out to be a sham. I met Lady Meyer with mutual friends in 2004. She was charming and polite and I had no reason to doubt her or her motives. She had just returned from Washington, where her husband had been an ambassador at a most interesting time in history. She was a good conversationalist and well versed. He had interesting tales to tell. She told of the problems she’d had “recovering” her children. When she explained what, she claimed, happened, I thought “how awful” and felt her plight. She mentioned she was having a fundraising ball at The Dorchester and asked if I would like to come. I attended along with friends. Between us we spent £1500 on a table.
I now cannot comprehend why I then continued to believe this lady and her nonsense for six years, but sadly I did. I supported Lady Meyer’s events initially just by attending, but invited her to a dinner I gave above the Ferragamo showroom in 2005 and at this point she persuaded me that I should become more involved.
She asked me to get involved in fund raising for PACT. I should have asked to see PACT’s accounts. I did not and there is no excuse for that. It is a lesson I will take forward with me and I urge others to do the same. Do NOT donate to a charity without knowing that the majority of funds raised actually goes to the cause rather than on salaries. Over the following years I, without charging the charity a single penny and believing that Lady Meyer did the same, I helped organise:
PACT with STARS, Ralph Lauren, 25th May 2010; PACT Barbecue, Firehouse, 10th July 2010; PACT Emilia Wickstead Fashion Show, Papillon, 23rd April 2009; PACT Speed Dating, Firehouse, 20th November 2008; PACT Speed Dating, Stanza, 7th February 2008
At most of these events, the majority of attendees came from my address book and those of my friends and so to did the majority of donations. My friends were also duped by the supposedly charming Lady Meyer and her infectiously enthusiastic manner. They handed over cash, paintings, prizes and gave time to create drawings for another fundraiser. They gave up their time, they wrote letters supporting PACT and most of all they believed in Lady Meyer and her cause. They, like me, wanted to support missing children. In addition, Lady Meyer took advantage of my personal connections to help her in other ways. She was determined to forge herself a new career and I involved her in a project I had been approached about. Strangely the people who I was dealing with pulled out after meeting her. I think I now know why. Though she now states “I used to earn a whole lot more in the city”, in relation to her charitable salary, this successful company didn’t want anything to do with her.
At Christmas in 2009, the Meyer pair had nowhere to go as the Eurostar was cancelled and their planned trip to Paris couldn’t happen. I invited them into my home for the day. In the six years I knew them, never did they invite me to dinner in their home and I can only think of a couple of occasions where I was a guest at a lunch or dinner – and I wonder now who really picked up the bill.
The first cracks came in April 2009 when a good friend had a very public row with Lady Meyer. Letters were exchanged and I told this individual how wrong he was. It was me that got it wrong though and for that I again apologise to my friend.
……Cont
I helped come up with the idea for the “PACT with Stars” event for International Missing Children’s Day in May 2010. I became so heavily involved in this matter and probably spent two-three days a week on it for over 7 months. I did not charge a penny for this work. The majority of the committee were friends of mine. The majority of the personalities who contributed drawings were friends or contacts of mine. The majority of donated prizes were given by my friends. Some were worth hundreds of pounds, some were worth many thousands of pounds. All were given to support missing children and given in good faith. Our time and donations were not given to support salaries. I apologise to all who I asked to support this.
During the weeks running up to the launch of “PACT with Stars” at Ralph Lauren’s Fulham Road store, I became increasingly suspicious of the motives of the Meyers. The event went from being about charity to being one about the Meyers. The press interviews were about Catherine Meyer in the main rather than focusing on the charity. Ralph Lauren, who seem so generous to the “Chanel-clad” one, took precedence over all other participants. “We cannot offend them,” Lady Meyer said. We now know why.
As the day of the launch grew ever closer, Sir Christopher’s focus was exposed when asked about one particular interview. He said “We must do the interview, Catherine. It’s good for OUR profile.” At this point I finally realised what this “charity” was about. In one sentence he summed it up perfectly. PACT was a vehicle for the profile of the Meyers and now we know it was also a source of income for them too. How stupid I had been not to realise I’d been hoodwinked for so long. I did not, at that stage, though, know where the funds raised would end up.
A year has passed since the “PACT with Stars” event and during that year, though I told all who asked about what went wrong, I did not talk to the press. It is Richard Eden of the Telegraph’s Mandrake who is to be credited in exposing this story. He is the one who generated a story that has run for over a month in both his paper and the Independent and in both of their letter columns. The one thing, though, that really exposed the scandal of a charity that pays some 50% of income to its founder and her assistant and considerably more in expenses were that charity’s very own accounts.
A common misapprehension, however, is that I gave Richard the story and this must be corrected. I did not do this. If I had done such, I would openly admit it as I am incensed about what has been exposed. I did, however, give a comment in the Telegraph’s second piece and it is indeed me and my friends who have written many of the letters about the scandal. For the Meyers now to go about having their stooges attack me and Twitter barbed remarks that are extremely offensive only shows what an own goal they’ve truly scored.
I am sad that the efforts of so many to raise funds for missing children, encouraged by me, have been exposed for having not benefitted them. This is a charity that brings charity in general into disrepute in a most shocking manner. I stupidly fell into the trap of believing that just because they had what seemed like a good background, Lady Meyer and her husband had a good motive in all they did. I am a fool for believing such.
I unreservedly apologise to my friends for having involved them with this sham.
Matthew Steeples (@daSteepsSpeaks) gives background to his meeting Lady Catherine Meyer and subsequent involvement with PACT
http://dasteepsspeaks.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/poisonous-magpies-and-snobbish-grabbers.html
I also know Matthew on twitter.
Published BY Matthew Steeples. 2011
I am Matthew Steeples and having seen this I thought I should explain how I came to be involved with a charity that turns out to be a sham. I met Lady Meyer with mutual friends in 2004. She was charming and polite and I had no reason to doubt her or her motives. She had just returned from Washington, where her husband had been an ambassador at a most interesting time in history. She was a good conversationalist and well versed. He had interesting tales to tell. She told of the problems she’d had “recovering” her children. When she explained what, she claimed, happened, I thought “how awful” and felt her plight. She mentioned she was having a fundraising ball at The Dorchester and asked if I would like to come. I attended along with friends. Between us we spent £1500 on a table.
I now cannot comprehend why I then continued to believe this lady and her nonsense for six years, but sadly I did. I supported Lady Meyer’s events initially just by attending, but invited her to a dinner I gave above the Ferragamo showroom in 2005 and at this point she persuaded me that I should become more involved.
She asked me to get involved in fund raising for PACT. I should have asked to see PACT’s accounts. I did not and there is no excuse for that. It is a lesson I will take forward with me and I urge others to do the same. Do NOT donate to a charity without knowing that the majority of funds raised actually goes to the cause rather than on salaries. Over the following years I, without charging the charity a single penny and believing that Lady Meyer did the same, I helped organise:
PACT with STARS, Ralph Lauren, 25th May 2010; PACT Barbecue, Firehouse, 10th July 2010; PACT Emilia Wickstead Fashion Show, Papillon, 23rd April 2009; PACT Speed Dating, Firehouse, 20th November 2008; PACT Speed Dating, Stanza, 7th February 2008
At most of these events, the majority of attendees came from my address book and those of my friends and so to did the majority of donations. My friends were also duped by the supposedly charming Lady Meyer and her infectiously enthusiastic manner. They handed over cash, paintings, prizes and gave time to create drawings for another fundraiser. They gave up their time, they wrote letters supporting PACT and most of all they believed in Lady Meyer and her cause. They, like me, wanted to support missing children. In addition, Lady Meyer took advantage of my personal connections to help her in other ways. She was determined to forge herself a new career and I involved her in a project I had been approached about. Strangely the people who I was dealing with pulled out after meeting her. I think I now know why. Though she now states “I used to earn a whole lot more in the city”, in relation to her charitable salary, this successful company didn’t want anything to do with her.
At Christmas in 2009, the Meyer pair had nowhere to go as the Eurostar was cancelled and their planned trip to Paris couldn’t happen. I invited them into my home for the day. In the six years I knew them, never did they invite me to dinner in their home and I can only think of a couple of occasions where I was a guest at a lunch or dinner – and I wonder now who really picked up the bill.
The first cracks came in April 2009 when a good friend had a very public row with Lady Meyer. Letters were exchanged and I told this individual how wrong he was. It was me that got it wrong though and for that I again apologise to my friend.
……Cont
I helped come up with the idea for the “PACT with Stars” event for International Missing Children’s Day in May 2010. I became so heavily involved in this matter and probably spent two-three days a week on it for over 7 months. I did not charge a penny for this work. The majority of the committee were friends of mine. The majority of the personalities who contributed drawings were friends or contacts of mine. The majority of donated prizes were given by my friends. Some were worth hundreds of pounds, some were worth many thousands of pounds. All were given to support missing children and given in good faith. Our time and donations were not given to support salaries. I apologise to all who I asked to support this.
During the weeks running up to the launch of “PACT with Stars” at Ralph Lauren’s Fulham Road store, I became increasingly suspicious of the motives of the Meyers. The event went from being about charity to being one about the Meyers. The press interviews were about Catherine Meyer in the main rather than focusing on the charity. Ralph Lauren, who seem so generous to the “Chanel-clad” one, took precedence over all other participants. “We cannot offend them,” Lady Meyer said. We now know why.
As the day of the launch grew ever closer, Sir Christopher’s focus was exposed when asked about one particular interview. He said “We must do the interview, Catherine. It’s good for OUR profile.” At this point I finally realised what this “charity” was about. In one sentence he summed it up perfectly. PACT was a vehicle for the profile of the Meyers and now we know it was also a source of income for them too. How stupid I had been not to realise I’d been hoodwinked for so long. I did not, at that stage, though, know where the funds raised would end up.
A year has passed since the “PACT with Stars” event and during that year, though I told all who asked about what went wrong, I did not talk to the press. It is Richard Eden of the Telegraph’s Mandrake who is to be credited in exposing this story. He is the one who generated a story that has run for over a month in both his paper and the Independent and in both of their letter columns. The one thing, though, that really exposed the scandal of a charity that pays some 50% of income to its founder and her assistant and considerably more in expenses were that charity’s very own accounts.
A common misapprehension, however, is that I gave Richard the story and this must be corrected. I did not do this. If I had done such, I would openly admit it as I am incensed about what has been exposed. I did, however, give a comment in the Telegraph’s second piece and it is indeed me and my friends who have written many of the letters about the scandal. For the Meyers now to go about having their stooges attack me and Twitter barbed remarks that are extremely offensive only shows what an own goal they’ve truly scored.
I am sad that the efforts of so many to raise funds for missing children, encouraged by me, have been exposed for having not benefitted them. This is a charity that brings charity in general into disrepute in a most shocking manner. I stupidly fell into the trap of believing that just because they had what seemed like a good background, Lady Meyer and her husband had a good motive in all they did. I am a fool for believing such.
I unreservedly apologise to my friends for having involved them with this sham.
Matthew Steeples (@daSteepsSpeaks) gives background to his meeting Lady Catherine Meyer and subsequent involvement with PACT
http://dasteepsspeaks.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/poisonous-magpies-and-snobbish-grabbers.html
