I know what it means as it happened during the Madeleine McCann case when a retired ex solicitor brought together a band of people to denigrate the McCanns by blaming them for being involved with the child's disappearance. The man then had a massive collection of funds with the intention of handing these funds to Amaral who'd been leading the case and who'd been proven to have been underhanded in his investigation.
When it came to light that this ex-solicitor had been up to no good he was given a 3 month suspended sentence.
This guy even had leaflets printed to tie on every post in Leicester where the McCanns lived and "hired "his followers to spread them around the area.
I think the amount which had been collected was £50,000, but I never knew what happened to it.