Prince Charles will reportedly no longer handle large cash donations destined for his charities – prompting a rash of eyebrow-raising, on brand 2022 headlines involving “bags” or “suitcases” of money.
The pledge came from a “royal source”, according to multiple outlets, and followed The Sunday Times saying the future king was presented with cash – reportedly totalling three million euros, and some of it in a suitcase – from a former Qatari prime minister between 2011 and 2015.
The newspaper said the heir to the throne personally accepted the donations for his charity – the Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund (PWCF) – from Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim, who was prime minister of Qatar between 2007 and 2013.
On Wednesday, following fierce criticism of the Prince of Wales, the royal source suggested Charles had been following advice and the unconventional practice had ceased.
According to the PA News agency, the source said:
“It was passed immediately to his charities and it was his charities who decided to accept the money – that is a decision for them.
“And they did so, and as they confirmed, it followed all the right processes, the auditors looked at it.
“The Prince of Wales operates on advice. Situations, contexts change over the years.
“For more than half a decade, with the situation as it has evolved, this has not happened and it would not happen again.
“That is then and this is now.”
The news agency Reuters headlined the briefing: “Bags of cash for Prince Charles’s charities won’t be repeated – source”.
On its ticker, Sky News went with: “A senior Buckingham Palace source says the Prince of Wales would never again accept bags of cash for his charity”.
The US website The Daily Beast billed it as: “Prince Charles makes radical decision not to accept cash donations”.
Gabriel Pogrund, one of the Sunday Times journalists who broke the story, wrote on Twitter: “Prince of Wales will not accept suitcases of cash in future, royal source says”.
A variation later featured on the front page of the Daily Express.
Social media couldn’t resist the future king’s pledge.
According to the Sunday Times, a donation of one million euros was handed over during one meeting at the prince’s residence, Clarence House.
The charity, which was founded in 1979 with a mission to transform lives and build sustainable communities, awards grants to UK registered non-profit organisations to deliver projects in the UK, the Commonwealth and overseas.
Clarence House said the donations were “passed immediately” to one of the prince’s charities and that “appropriate governance” was carried out.
“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,” a statement said.
It comes after the Metropolitan Police launched an investigation into an alleged cash-for-honours scandal in February after Charles and his former close confidant, Michael Fawcett, were reported over the claims.
Fawcett was accused of promising to help secure a knighthood and British citizenship for a Saudi billionaire donor to another of Charles’s charities, the Prince’s Foundation.
Clarence House said the prince had “no knowledge” of the alleged cash-for-honours scandal.