The short answer to your Question is: No, it is not.

The somewhat longer Answer is: Unfortunately, from what i can tell from your Post, any form of Donation people did towards the FC, were on a voluntary basis, and handing out Items pretty much seals the deal as a legit trade action between players. The fact that Members even got a part of the actual value refunded is just a bonus to make the building up of a FC more bearable. While it can be nice to build up together a FC together with a bunch of People, from FC House to Building Projects, do keep always in mind that no matter the FC rights People are given, at the end of the day, it is still the FC leaders property.

Personally, those kind of FC's do sound nice on paper, but that system only works if it is being made by a close circle of Friends and if the FC also plans to keep their membercount low.

Therefore, The lesson of today: ALWAYS read the smaller printed text of any Contract you sign up for.