No big foreign convoy donor found, Finance Committee told
86 per cent of GoFundMe’s donors to the Freedom Convoy were, in fact, Canadian. Photo: RWN
No mysterious foreign millionaires bankrolled the Freedom Convoy, crowdfunding executives yesterday told the Commons finance committee on March 17th and as reported in Blacklock’s Reporter.
“We stepped up our donation reviews and proactively did that review of foreign sources,” Juan Benitez, president of GoFundMe testified before the Commons Finance Committee on March 17th. “We feel comfortable.”
Donors contributed $10.1 million before GoFundMe suspended the account February 4 at the request of Ottawa’s mayor. President Benitez in his first appearance at the finance committee March 3 said 88 percent of donations originated in Canada and 86 percent of donors were Canadian. Findings were based on checks of bank account and credit card records, he said.
Benitez yesterday repeated his testimony that foreign donations to the Freedom Convoy were insignificant. “There just was not a significant foreign contribution,” he said.
Kim Wilford, general counsel for GoFundMe, testified the largest donation overall did not run to six figures and was not foreign sourced. “Actually the largest donation in this campaign was from a Canadian and it was in the amount of $30,000,” said Wilford.
