Prince Charles’ charity runs into financial controversy

Prince Charles’ charities are no stranger to controversies. The billionaire Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani, who was Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister between 2007 and 2013, is allegedly a contentious figure. Claims of alleged cash donations given by him to the Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund are the latest to throw a spotlight on fundraising for the heir to the throne’s charities.
He reportedly built close ties with British royalty, is an occasional visitor to the Castle of Mey, the Scottish former home of the Queen Mother, and once gave Charles a £147,000 horse named Dark Swan, it has been reported. The Charity Commission is examining whether it needs to carry out a review of donations received by a charity of the Prince of Wales.
Last year, another of Charles’ charities, The Prince’s Foundation, hit the headlines after it was revealed by the Mail on Sunday that Charles’ closest confidante, Michael Fawcett, had offered to help a Saudi billionaire obtain a knighthood and UK citizenship in exchange for generous donations.
Fawcett dramatically stepped down as chief executive of the foundation after a letter emerged to an aide of Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz, who had donated thousands to the charity. The Prince’s Foundation also faced cash-for-access allegations after claims that a society fixer acted as a middleman offering to set up dinners and overnight stays at Dumfries House, the Palladian mansion in Ayrshire Charles saved and renovated. It was reported that a former Russian banker, Dmitry Leus, allegedly donated £500,000, though the charity only received £100,000, which in the end was returned to the fixer when it was decided he was not a suitable donor.
In 2003, it emerged the wife of the Turkish billionaire, Cem Uzan, was seated next to Charles at one of several dinners the couple enjoyed as guests, having donated £400,000 to the Prince’s Foundation. A tightening up of vetting procedures for donors was reportedly implemented after it later emerged that Uzan was under investigation for fraud-related offences in the US.
With an estimated personal net worth of over $1.2bn (almost £1bn), Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani, the former prime minister of Qatar, is one of the country’s richest men – and has often garnered attention because of his wealth and is currently in the headlines over alleged cash donations to Prince Charles.
Sometimes known as “HBJ” in London’s financial circles, the 62-year-old was named the “man who bought London” after he used his wealth, as well as his influence as the head of Qatar’s multibillion dollar sovereign wealth fund, the Qatari Investment Authority, to expand Qatar’s financial assets in London through a series of valuable assets.
Al-Thani made a name for himself for his political prowess as well. A relative of Qatar’s ruling family, he has held several high-profile positions in Qatar’s government including minister of foreign affairs in 1992. He was appointed as Qatar’s deputy prime minister in 2003. In 2007, he became prime minister, a role he stepped down from in 2013.
It might come as little surprise, then, that several years ago the former emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, is rumoured to have remarked that although he ran the country it was his then prime minister, HBJ, who owned it.
He also is said to have allegedly conceded that under his premiership Qatar “maybe” financed the Al- Nusra Front, the Syrian branch of al-Qaida, without his knowledge.
Qatar’s investment in Barclays during the financial crisis in 2008, when al-Thani was prime minister, became the centre of a criminal trial over the controversial services deal struck between the lender and the small Gulf state.
In 2021, al-Thani was also named in the Pandora Papers, which revealed he had used offshore companies in tax havens including the British Virgin Islands and the Bahamas.