Prince Charles of Britain is embattled with more questions after a newspaper reported that one of his charity foundations accepted a one million pound ($1.2 million) donation from relatives of Osama Bin Laden.
The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund received the money in 2013 from Bakr bin Laden, patriarch of the large and wealthy Saudi family, and his brother Shafiq, reported The Sunday Times.
Founded in 1979, the Charitable Fund was envisioned to transform lives and build sustainable communities, and it gives grants to a wide variety of projects in Britain and worldwide.
Bakr bin Laden and his brother, Shafiq, are both half-brothers of the former al-Qaida leader, who was killed by U.S. special forces in Pakistan in 2011. The newspaper said Prince Charles’ advisers had urged him not to take the donation.
Prince Charles is not directly involved in Charity donations
Prince Charles’ Clarence House office disputed the reports involving him in the donation consent approvals although it confirmed the donation had been made.
The Clarence House office said the decision to accept the money was taken by the charity’s trustees and not the prince, and “thorough due diligence was undertaken in accepting this donation.”
Ian Cheshire, the fund’s chairman, also said the donation was agreed “wholly” by the five trustees at the time, and “any attempt to suggest otherwise is misleading and inaccurate.”
The 73-year-old Prince Charles has faced a series of claims about the operation of his charities. Last month, The Sunday Times reported he had accepted bags of cash containing $3 million from Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, the former prime minister of Qatar.
A separate contention is currently under investigation by London police involving people associated with another of the prince’s charities, the Prince’s Foundation, indicating that it offered to help a Saudi billionaire secure honors and citizenship in return for donations.
The Clarence House still maintains that Prince Charles had no knowledge of any such offer by the Charity foundation.
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