Prince Charles accepted bag full of cash as 'charity donation' from Qatar ex-PM: Report

Britain’s Prince Charles allegedly accepted a carrier bag “full of cash” as a charitable donation from the former prime minister of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, a new explosive report published by UK's The Sunday Times newspaper claimed on Saturday. The UK’s Prince was handed three bundles of cash given as charitable donations amounting to a whopping €3 million between years 2011 and 2015, the paper’s investigation revealed. Of the total cash Prince Charles took from his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Hamad, 62, at least €1m was stuffed into carrier bags from Fortnum & Mason, a luxury food store. All of the mentioned cash was later deposited into the accounts of the Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund (PWCF). It, however, remains unclear if the charity received by the UK’s Prince was “illegal” or not. Following the stir, Clarence House released a statement clarifying that the Charitable donations received from Qatar’s Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim were “passed immediately to one of the prince's charities.” The firm added that it carried out the appropriate governance and procedures and that nothing illegal was done. Trustees of PWCF discussed the governance and donor relationship: Charity's chairman “We have confirmed that the previous trustees of PWCF discussed the governance and donor relationship, and have also confirmed that the donor was a legitimate and verified counterparty, and our auditors signed off on the donation after a specific enquiry during the audit. There was no failure of governance,” Sir Ian Cheshire, charity’s chairman, told the Sunday Times. He further admitted that donations were made in cash and that it “was the donor's choice.” When the paper verified which donations the firm was talking about, Cheshire responded, "The assurance of [the] 2015 donation has been verified from records. I believe the same assurance applied to earlier donations and look forward to confirming that in due course." He stressed that the money was invested in transforming lives and building sustainable communities. It was also used to award the grants in fields such as conservation, education, health and social inclusion. An anti-monarchy campaign group known as 'Republic' demanded an immediate investigation into the cash secured by the British prince from Qatar. The demand as per the group is legitimate as the right-hand man to Prince Charles named Michael Fawcett had to step down from his role in the British royal’s main charities after the Sunday Times said he had offered honours in return for donations. Sheikh Hamad's lawyers declined to comment on the matter.

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Prince Charles accepted bag full of cash as 'charity donation' from Qatar ex-PM: Report

Clarence House released a statement clarifying that the Charitable donations received from Qatar’s Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim were “passed to the charity."

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