Britain’s Prince Charles is facing more questions over his charities after a newspaper reported that one of his funds accepted a GBP 1 million ($1.2 million) donation from relatives of Osama bin Laden.
The Sunday Times reported that 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. Both are half-brothers of the former al-Qaida leader, who was killed by US Special Forces in Pakistan in 2011. According to ‘The Sunday Times’, Prince Charles met with Bakr in London and allegedly agreed to accept GBP 1 million. Though the report claims that several of the senior royal’s closest advisers urged Charles — heir to Britain’s throne — to return the money, however, his Clarence House office has denied that the royal was personally involved in the decision. “The Prince of Wales’ Charitable Fund (PWCF) has assured us that thorough due diligence was undertaken in accepting this donation,” a Clarence House spokesperson told ‘Sky News’.