Prince Charles accepted a suitcase full of cash as a charitable donation from the former prime minister of Qatar, it has been claimed.
The Sunday Times says it was one of three bundles of cash given as charitable donations which the Prince of Wales received from Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani.
The three lots, which totalled €3m, were handed to the prince personally between 2011 and 2015, the paper adds.
It claims that on one occasion, Sheikh Hamad, 62, presented the prince with €1m reportedly stuffed into carrier bags from Fortnum & Mason, the luxury food store that has a royal charter to provide the Royal Family with groceries.
The cash payments were deposited into the accounts of the Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund (PWCF), an entity that bankrolls the prince’s private projects and his country estate in Scotland, it added.
There is no suggestion anything about the payments was illegal.
Clarence House has released a statement following the report.
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It said: “Charitable donations received from Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim were passed immediately to one of the prince’s charities who carried out the appropriate governance and have assured us that all the correct processes were followed.”
It is the latest claim to beset the future king, who has repeatedly run into controversy in the past and who is currently in Rwanda representing the Queen at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
Investigation linked to The Prince’s Foundation
On Friday, the Prince of Wales expressed his “personal sorrow” in the Rwandan capital Kigali about “slavery’s enduring impact” and addressed the contentious issue of other Commonwealth countries cutting ties with the Royal Family.
In February, police said they were investigating a bid to give honours and citizenship to a Saudi national linked to the Prince of Wales’s charity The Prince’s Foundation.
In September 2021, Clarence House said that Charles had “no knowledge of the alleged offer of honours or British citizenship on the basis of donation to his charities”.
It said that he was fully supportive of an investigation by The Prince’s Foundation.
Also in February, Clarence House reiterated its previous statement, saying: “The Prince of Wales had no knowledge of the alleged offer of honours or British citizenship on the basis of donation to his charities.”
