Kifkif closes with its leader denounced for alleged embezzlement

Samir Bargachi, founder of Kifkif, is accused of keeping more than 200.000 euros from the association

Kifkif It was the first association to provide protection and help to migrants and refugees LGTBIQ + providing them with social assistance, psychological support, sexual health or language courses, among other functions. From 2002 carried out unprecedented work in Spain which quickly began to acquire notoriety and a specific weight within the Madrid solidarity fabric. Last October 26 Kif Kif The blinds closed definitively because its founder, Samir Bargachi, is accused of embezzling more than $200.000.

With the closure, not only is the enormous work that this association carried out for the group lost. LGTBIQ +, a deeper gap is also opening up, if possible, that of the discredit of many other associations LGTBIQ + subsidized companies that will suffer suspicion and unfair criticism for the bad actions of a single character: Samir Bargachi.

When Bargachi arrived in Madrid he was a young Moroccan who emigrated to Spain at just 13 years old and whose nonconformity with Arab ways of thinking and laws led him to create this NGO. The name he gave it is not coincidental: Kifkif it means "from peer to peer" in the Berber language.

Embezzlement of 208.580 euros

Everything changed on October 14. That day, the newspaper El Mundo published an article in which it was revealed that the Moroccan has been denounced for «misappropriation, document falsification and fraud» to his own society. Specifically, he is accused of a «total embezzlement of 208.580 euros since April 2021» to the accounts of the NGO.

Jesús Ortega, former treasurer of the company, is one of the complainants. «I have treated Samir like a son, I have known him since he was little. I myself helped him in the creation of the association because he needed three signatures. I saw birth Kifkif and now it hurts me a lot to have to be the one to close it"he says in a telephone conversation with The Huff Post.

Everything happened on July 25. “Some workers contact me and tell me that the economic situation is bad and I try to contact the president, Samir Bargachi”, says the former treasurer. “When I contacted him to tell him about the situation, he told me that we would talk the next day, but he disappeared.", remember.

After receiving silence in response, “We began to investigate and we estimate that the possible embezzlement could exceed 200.000 euros.", they calculate from the NGO. “We believe that it has been little by little” they complete. Besides, "does not want to explain”, which is why the association resorted to disciplinary dismissal.

Kifkif Liquidation

Following the complaint, Ortega has taken the position of provisional president with a single task: to proceed with the settlement of the association and execute the ERE that will affect all its workers. «We are going to leave fifteen people on the street because of poor management«, He laments.

These last days, Jesus asks through its social networks that no one donate or become a "friend" of the association because Samir I would still control the money that may enter through these channels. In fact, through the official account on X or Instagram of Kifkif, Until recently, the accused continued to ask for the solidarity collaboration of his followers «to continue protecting the rights of LGTBI migrants and refugees«. They were already the last publications that were made from both accounts, supposedly under the power of Samir being the only one who has the access keys. Neither promotion of the association's activities nor proclamations in favor of the rights of the group. Only "spam» to ask for money «by all possible means«Assures Ortega.

a sad ending

A bad end for an association that was the flag of the cause LGTBIQ+ in Madrid and that took care, especially, of the migrant population. «The work I did Kifkif They are very necessary. In reports of UNHCR It is detailed that asylum requests due to persecution suffered due to gender identity and sexual orientation have multiplied progressively and exponentially, becoming one of the most recurrent reasons in requests for international protection today. Unfortunately, Kifkif will not continue with its activity, but the technical team of professionals feels a true vocation and passion for our work, above names and surnames and brands and we want to carve our own path, based on transparency, honesty and good practices", account.