Bin Laden family donated £1m to Prince Charles charity: report

Prince Charles, the heir to the British
throne, accepted a £1 million ($1.19 million, 1.21 million euro) donation to
his charitable trust from the family of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, The
Sunday Times reported.

Although there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by the Saudi family
members, the revelation increases scrutiny on the 73-year-old prince’s
charity organisations, which have been rocked by allegations of criminal
wrong doing.

Several of his advisers urged Charles not to take the donation from family
patriarch Bakr bin Laden and his brother Shafiq — half-brothers of terror
leader Osama — according to sources cited by the paper.

Charles, 73, agreed to the donation to the Prince of Wales Charitable Fund
(PWCF) when he met with Bakr, 76, at Clarence House in London in 2013,
despite objections of advisers from the trust and his office, the paper
reported.

Ian Cheshire, chairman of PWCF, said the donation was agreed by the five
trustees at the time.

British police in February launched an investigation into another of
Charles’s charitable foundations over claims of a cash-for-honours scandal
involving a Saudi businessman.

The head of The Prince’s Foundation resigned last year after an internal
investigation into the allegations.

Michael Fawcett, chief executive of the foundation, had initially agreed to
suspend his duties following newspaper revelations about his links to a Saudi
national.

The man, tycoon Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz, had donated large sums to
restoration projects of particular interest to Charles.

Fawcett, a former valet to the Prince of Wales who has been close to Queen
Elizabeth II’s heir for decades, is alleged to have coordinated efforts to
grant a royal honour and even UK citizenship to Mahfouz.

Mahfouz reportedly denies any wrongdoing.

The Charities Commission, which registers and oversees charities in England
and Wales, said in November it had opened a formal probe into donations
received by Mahfouz’s charitable trust which were intended for the prince’s
foundation.

The Prince’s Foundation, set up in 1986, is not regulated by the Charities
Commission but is registered with the Scottish Charity Regulator.

The Scottish body in September launched its own probe into reports that the
foundation accepted cash from a Russian banker previously convicted of money
laundering.

AFP