According to The Sunday Times, the heir apparent to the throne of the United Kingdom, Prince Charles, has accepted a donation of one million pounds ($1.19 million or 1.21 million euros) to his charitable trust from the family of Osama bin Laden, the terrorist responsible for the attacks on September 11.
Despite the fact that there is no evidence to suggest that any member of the Saudi royal family has engaged in any illegal activity, this revelation has increased the level of scrutiny that has been placed on the 73-year-old prince’s charitable organisations, which have been shaken by allegations of criminal wrongdoing.
According to the sources who were referenced in the article, some of Charles’s advisors persuaded him not to accept the contribution from the family patriarch Bakr bin Laden and his brother Shafiq, who are both half-brothers of the terrorist leader Osama.
The meeting between Charles, 73, and Bakr, 76, took place at Clarence House in London in 2013, and it was stated that against the reservations of advisers from the trust and his office, Charles gave his consent to the contribution being made to the Prince of Wales Charitable Fund (PWCF).
According to Ian Cheshire, the chairman of the PWCF, all five trustees at the time unanimously decided to accept the bequest.
The allegations of a cash-for-honours scandal involving a Saudi billionaire prompted the British police to open an inquiry into yet another of Prince Charles’ charity institutions in the month of February.
After an internal inquiry into the claims was completed a year ago, the head of The Prince’s Foundation resigned from his position.
Following the findings in the newspaper concerning his connections to a Saudi individual, Michael Fawcett, the chief executive of the foundation, had first agreed to temporarily step aside from his responsibilities.
The individual, a businessman by the name of Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz, had contributed large money to conservation efforts that had a special place in Charles’s heart.
Fawcett, a former valet to the Prince of Wales who has been close to Queen Elizabeth II’s heir for decades, is suspected of coordinating efforts to grant Mahfouz a royal honour and even citizenship in the United Kingdom. Fawcett has a long history of friendship with the heir apparent to Queen Elizabeth II.
In November, the Charities Commission, which is responsible for the registration and oversight of charities in England and Wales, announced that it had launched an official investigation into the donations that Mahfouz’s charitable trust had received but which were actually meant for the prince’s foundation.
The Prince’s Foundation is not subject to the oversight of the Charities Commission since it was established in 1986; rather, it is registered with the Scottish Charity Regulator.
It was reported in September that the foundation had taken funds from a Russian banker who had previously been convicted of money laundering. The Scottish body began its own investigation into the matter in September.