Britain’s Prince Charles is once again embroiled in a big controversy. It is alleged that Charles’ Charitable Trust took one million pounds (about 9.64 crores in Indian currency) from two cousins of Osama bin Laden. According to a report, Prince’s advisors had asked him not to take money from this family, although he did not heed this advice.
Even a few months ago, Prince was embroiled in controversies. Then he was accused of taking charity funds from two Saudi citizens who were the target of UK intelligence agencies.
Why not heed the advice
According to the British newspaper ‘The Sunday Times’, Charles’ taking money from two of bin Laden’s cousins is shocking. The names of the two people who funded the charity are Bakar bin Laden and Shafiq. This is shocking because Prince’s advisors had refused to accept this fund. He also gave the same advice to Charles on several occasions.
This money was deposited in the account of Prince of Wales Charitable Fund (PWCF) in 2013. It is a matter of course that the prince himself did not use this money.
There may be a police investigation
According to PWCF chairman Ian Heshir, all five trustees agreed to take the fund, it was not Prince’s decision alone. Till now Prince himself has not given any reaction or clarification on this matter.
The special thing in this case is that when Prince took this money, two years before that, US Navy SEAL commandos had killed bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan. By that time, there was an investigation going on in Britain about bin Laden’s network in Britain. The question arises that even when this matter was hot, why did Prince take this fund? Didn’t they know about the situation?
A few years ago, two blacklisted Saudi businessmen also donated large sums of money to the Prince’s charity foundation. This matter was also disclosed in a report of the Sunday Times itself. After the investigation, the then head of the trust had resigned.
It is alleged that both the Saudi businessmen had given this money to acquire UK citizenship. However, during interrogation, both the Saudi businessmen had denied the allegations. The trust itself had assured to investigate the matter. It has also been accused of having links with some Russian businessmen.