Credit;PA
Prince Charles allegedly accepted a suitcase containing €1 million in cash from a former Qatari prime minister, the Sunday Times has reported.
According to the newspaper, the suitcase was one of three cash donations from Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim – nicknamed “HBJ” – totalling €3 million which the Prince of Wales personally received between 2011 and 2015.
It is claimed that on one occasion the money was handed over in a holdall at a meeting at Clarence House. On another, the cash was contained in carrier bags from the department store Fortnum and Mason.
Clarence House said donations from the sheikh were passed immediately to one of the prince’s charities and all the correct processes were followed.
There is no suggestion the payments were illegal.
Donations to Prince Charles’s charities have come under scrutiny in recent months following allegations that one of them offered a Saudi donor help to secure a UK honour and citizenship.
The Metropolitan Police said earlier this year that it is investigating the claims about the Prince’s Foundation under the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925.
The foundation is understood to be offering its full co-operation and Clarence House has said that Prince Charles had no knowledge of the alleged offer of honours or citizenship on the basis of donation to his charities.
Michael Fawcett, the prince’s former valet and chief executive of the foundation, resigned in November as the charity investigated the claims.
The investigation found that he co-ordinated with “fixers” over an honorary CBE for billionaire businessman Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz, who denies any wrongdoing.
But it concluded that there was no evidence that trustees were aware of the co-ordination.
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