via Associated Press
Prince Charles, here at Queen Elizabeth’s Jubilee on June 5, 2022, privately spoke out against the government’s plan to bring illegal migrants back to Rwanda.
UNITED KINGDOM – Prince Charles once again at the center of a scandal. The British Crown Prince has received a £1m donation from the Bin Laden family for his foundation, according to the Sunday Times.
Several of his advisers have pleaded for the foundation not to accept the payment from the wealthy family of the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Osama bin Laden, according to sources quoted in the British newspaper’s article. Although the Saudi family members who denied Osama bin Laden are not suspected of a possible crime, this information raises awareness around the Prince Charles Foundation, which police launched an investigation in February.
An investigation launched by Scotland Yard
This investigation aims to determine whether donations to the Prince Charles Foundation were rewarded with honorary degrees and used to support a naturalization application by Saudi businessman Mahfouz Marei Mubarak ben Mahfouz.
The agreement to donate £1million from Saudi family patriarch Bakr bin Laden (Osama’s half-brother) and his brother Shafik dates back to 2013 when Bakr bin Laden met Prince Charles in London, according to the Sunday Times. Ian Cheshire, the foundation’s chairman, said the donation was accepted by all five trustees at the time.
The case, which Scotland Yard was investigating, was uncovered last year and spattered the heir to the British throne at 73. His former valet Michael Fawcett, who is said to be very close to Charles, is suspected of using his influence to help Saudi businessman ben Mahfouz, a generous donor from monarchy-linked charities, win an award.
Donations of up to 3 million euros from a former Qatari minister
Mahfouz Marei Mubarak ben Mahfouz, who denies any wrongdoing, is said to have donated large sums of money to restoration projects. Michael Fawcett resigned in November 2021. Britain’s Charity Inspectorate also launched an inquiry last November into whether the wealthy Saudi businessman’s Mahfouz Foundation had received donations intended for Prince Charles’s.
“The investigation will examine whether certain donations received by the Mahfouz Foundation were intended for the organisation, whether they were used for the benefit of the donors and whether they should be returned,” the commission said at the time. .
In addition, the Sunday Times claimed at the end of June that Prince Charles received around €3 million in cash from Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani’s former prime minister, who received them during private meetings in Bags or suitcases were handed over to Qatar. There was nothing illegal on Prince Charles’ side as the money would have been paid directly to charity, his entourage replied to the British daily.
However, the Prince Charles Foundation, established in 1986, is not regulated by this commission but is dependent on the Scottish Regulator for Charities. The latter has also launched an investigation, but this time for several hundred thousand euros from a Russian donor.
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