London, UK | AFP | Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, accepted a £1 million ($1.19 million) donation to his charitable foundation from the family of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, The Sunday reported. Times.
Although there is no indication that members of the Saudi family have done anything wrong, the revelation heightens scrutiny on the 73-year-old prince’s charities, which have been rocked by allegations of wrongdoing.
Several of his advisers urged Carlos not to accept the donation from the patriarch of the Bakr bin Laden family and his brother Shafiq — half-brothers of terrorist leader Osama –, according to sources cited by the newspaper.
Charles accepted the donation to the Prince of Wales Charitable Fund (PWCF) when he met Bakr, 76, at Clarence House in London in 2013, despite objections from advisers to the trust and his office, the report said. Newspaper.
Ian Cheshire, president of the PWCF, said the donation was agreed upon by all five trustees at the time.
In February, British police launched an investigation into another of Charles’s charitable foundations for a cash-for-honours scandal involving a Saudi businessman.
The director of the Prince’s Foundation resigned last year following an internal investigation into the allegations.
Michael Fawcett, the foundation’s CEO, had initially agreed to step down following media revelations about his links to a Saudi national.
The man, tycoon Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz, had donated large sums to restoration projects of special interest to Carlos.
Fawcett, a former valet to the Prince of Wales and close to Queen Elizabeth II’s heir for decades, reportedly coordinated efforts to grant Mahfouz a royal honor and even British citizenship. Mahfouz denies doing anything wrong.
The Charities Commission, which registers and oversees charities in England and Wales, said in November that it had opened a formal investigation into donations received by Mahfouz’s charitable trust for the prince’s foundation.
The Prince’s Trust, established in 1986, is not regulated by the Charities Commission, but is registered with the Scottish Charities Regulatory Body.
The Scottish body launched its own investigation in September to determine whether the foundation accepted cash from a Russian banker previously convicted of money laundering.
