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Ethiopian Crown in Exile Tackles Widespread Global Fraud and Forgery
in the Illegal “Trade” in Royal Orders and Decorations
January 5, 2016
Analysis. Zahedi Center Staff. The Ethiopian Crown Council in
exile has initiated a legal and publicity campaign to attempt to
eliminate the illegal trade in forged and fake Imperial orders and
honors, recognizing that the trade — which is believed to be worth
many hundreds of thousands of dollars, perhaps millions, per year —
goes well beyond the Ethiopian honors system.
The Council issued a statement on December 30, 2016, noted:
The Crown Council of Ethiopia has been presented with
incontrovertible evidence that several persons in the US and
Europe have been illegally and fraudulently raising funds using
the name of the Ethiopian Crown and its charities, offering the
sale of ranks, or-ders, and decorations which are within the
Crown’s gift alone, and for which the Crown holds historical
copyright.
Supporters of the Crown are urged to only communicate with the
Crown Council directly, or via its recognized charitable body,
The International Society for the Imperial Ethiopian Orders
(registered as The International Society for the Star of
Ethiopia), a US-registered [501(c)3] charitable foundation.
The individuals concerned have purveyed illegal grants of Orders
in exchange for payment, and these illegally-bestowed Orders may
not be worn, nor the ranks, privileges, and post-nominals used.
All legally-awarded recognitions by the Crown Council are
recorded in the Crown’s Official Registry, maintained by the
Council.
Anyone who is concerned that he or she may have been the subject
of fraud in regard to the issuance of a Crown honor should
contact the Crown Council at: PO Box 320608, Alexandria,
Virginia 22320, USA, or via email to: GRCopley@StrategicStudies.org.
Anyone who feels that he or she has been the subject of such
fraud should also attempt to retrieve all details of
correspondence, bank transfers, and the like with the criminals
involved, and copies of any such documentation should be sent to
the Crown Council.
The illegal sale of Crown honors diminishes the prestige of
recognitions lawfully given to those who have faithfully and
diligently served the community. Moreover, those who have
innocently acquired fraudulently-dispensed honors in exchange
for what they have felt were donations to the charitable works
of the Crown have, unfortunately, seen their funds go only to
enrich those people who have dispensed the fake honors. The
Crown and its charities are the poorer for this theft of funds
which were intended to help (in particular) Ethiopia,
Ethiopians, and Africans, including the Water Initiative for
Africa (WIA), the main charity of the President of the Crown
Council, HIH Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie Haile-Selassie.
Those claiming to represent the Crown Council have often used
non-existent titles such as “Grand Chancellor”, have forged the
signature of HIH Prince Ermias on many of the documents, and
have forged the Seal of the Council.
Click here to see the original PDF statement from the Crown
Council.
Research by the Zahedi Center showed that fraud for financial and
social gain was being undertaken through the leadership of several
key individuals in the US, UK, Spain, Portugal, and elsewhere, with
sponsors of such initiatives spuriously claiming authority from
regnant or non-regnant royal and imperial houses. and then demanding
payment for “passage fees” into the royal orders, often with the
understanding that the fees were donations to royal charities. As
well, an industry has emerged to manufacture fake copies of the
royal and imperial orders and decorations, quite apart from the
documentation which often has digitally forged signatures and forged
seals of key royal figures.
Since issuing the statement, the Ethiopian Crown Council has
received numerous queries from individuals who wished to check the
validity of their decorations, many of which were, indeed, fake.
A spokesman for the Ethiopian Crown Council noted: “It is
heartbreaking to see how much donation funding has been siphoned off
to criminals, funding which could have been helping charitable
initiatives, such as our Water Initiative for Africa. Moreover, the
reality is that this kind of fraud diminishes the value and prestige
of honors given to individuals for genuine service to humanity,
quite apart from the blatant identity theft through the use of the
signatures and names of genuine individuals, such as the President
of the Crown Council. We know now that this identity theft and fraud
is being perpetrated against many royal houses around the world.”
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