The Prince of Wales accepted a suitcase containing €1 million in cash from a controversial Qatari politician, The Sunday Times can reveal.
It was one of three lots of cash, totalling €3 million, which Prince Charles personally received from Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, the former prime minister of Qatar who is nicknamed “HBJ”, between 2011 and 2015.
In a statement, Clarence House 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.”
The funds were received by the Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund, whose stated aim is to “transform lives and build sustainable communities”, by awarding grants to good causes in fields such as conservation, education, health and social inclusion.
The fund told the Sunday Times that its trustees had concluded the donor was legitimate and that its auditors had signed off on the donation.
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.
