Prince of Wales Charitable Fund accepted donation from Bin Laden family

[SnottyLottie]

POWCF have been caught accepting donations from dodgy people again (this time from Osama Bin Laden’s brothers in 2013).

His advisors reportedly urged Charles to return the money.

Clarence House claim that the money was accepted by the charity’s trustees rather than Charles himself and was done so with due diligence and research.

news.sky.com/story/the-prince-of-wales-charitable-fund-accepted-donation-from-osama-bin-ladens-family-12662569

Apparently it was £20m secured against swampland surrounding land and its 'potential for future planning gain'. This came to nothing in the aftermath of the global financial collapse post 2008.

This is an interesting article suggesting Charles was done like a kipper laying out the background and probably going a fair way towards explaining why Charles isn't too fussy about the origin of those much needed funds:

www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/2010/sep/10/dumfries-house-prince-charles

Is it still a bias if I find them all equally disappointing, and I don't mean just the RF? 😀

Charles' fondness for ME donor money may be as damaging to him as the Biden family liking for Chinese money is to them. It raises all sorts of questions that we deserve to know the answers to.

I would vote to keep the monarchy - for now. However, they are not doing themselves any favours. The only ones left standing are the Queen, Anne, William and Kate, and a smattering of very minor royals.

An interesting aspect to this particular leak is that it is from 2013. So why now? Does it tie-in with the rather obvious realisation that Will may be the better next monarch and Charles should be 'encouraged' to stand aside for him?

It's a major employer in a very deprived part of Ayrshire. I've visited it twice and it's fabulous. Not mainly a commercial enterprise. I could post more but there's steam coming out of my ears.😡

The suggestion that all national charities behave like this is a lie. And the poster did not name any as it is not true.
It is only Charles accepting millions in carrier bags and suitcases and accepting donations against his adviser's direct advice.

It is a pet project. The millions could have paid a lot of rent to run those courses all around the country.
It is only seen as historically important as it has much of its original furniture present. The owner could have donated it to a charity. Instead millions was spent unnecessarily buying a house that was already protected by its listed status.

You don't really understand and don't want to. Courses? It's a project which helps a specific area. Local young people are learning valuable skills in catering and agriculture. People can come and visit the grounds for nothing.

And why do you need to spend millions buying a listed mansion to run those courses?
Yes courses such as catering and agriculture where young people learn skills. The kind of courses run at venues around the country. I am not aware of any providers who have spent millions to buy a listed building to supposedly run them.
You forgot the health and wellbeing centre -providing alternative therapies.
But the courses look nothing different to those provided by others, even though the website uses the word unique. Except other providers have to be cost effective, unlike the Princes Trust.

So if you had your way then Dumfries House would be a hotel or a private residence for a millionaire, a fantastic free green space for people would be lost, a deprived area would lose jobs, the furniture would be in private hands etc.
Luckily you have no say in any of it.

It is a pet project. The millions could have paid a lot of rent to run those courses all around the country.
It is only seen as historically important as it has much of its original furniture present. The owner could have donated it to a charity. Instead millions was spent unnecessarily buying a house that was already protected by its listed status

It was the pet project of the Save Britain’s Heritage charity actually - one of many projects they have got involved in. Prince Charles got involved to help them raise money and then his charity contributed a large amount of the purchase price. The Scottish National Trust was interested too in buying the house, but its value with the furniture was too high. The Scottish government also thought it was a worthwhile project as they also contributed more than 10% of the purchase price.

I get that it’s not something you find worthwhile, or of value. But there’s plenty of people in the Uk who do.

@Serenster could you link me to a press release or article showing that Dumfries House was one of their campaigns? I can not find anything about that. They do have lots of campaigns mainly to save very neglected and dilapidated buildings, which Dumfries House was not. Dumfries House was due to be sold at auction, but Charles put together a bid that bought the house for £45 million.
It was not an at-risk building.

"Due to its significance and the risk of the furniture collection being distributed and auctioned, after three years of uncertainty, in 2007 the estate and its entire contents was purchased for £45m for the country by a consortium headed by Charles, Prince of Wales, including a £20m loan from the Prince's charitable trust."
The Princes Foundation own Dumfries House, but they appear to have paid nothing towards its purchase, simply giving a loan instead.

I think you misunderstand the purpose of Dumfries House. It is not to replace Highgrove, which is his home.

Just because you can’t find this information does not mean it’s not true (as you are no doubt insinuating 😀).

Here’s an extract of a letter James Knox, Chief Executive of The Art Newspaper, wrote for The Scotsman in 2007 as just one example:

“The saving of Dumfries House in its entirety, as proposed by SAVE Britain’s Heritage, would, at a stroke, transform the economic and employment prospects for the town and district. It has become something of a cliche that art can transform peoples’ lives. But with Dumfries House, this is most emphatically true. Everything must now be done to save this unique work of art.”

www.artfund.org/blog/2007/05/21/why-dumfries-house-must-be-saved

And also here:

“With the announcement of the sale, preservationists lamented the imminent dispersal of an ensemble said to have remained virtually untouched since an 1803 inventory, and organised a campaign intending to buy the house and hold it in trust under the Save Britain's Heritage organisation…The estate was finally purchased as a whole after Prince Charles heard about the campaign from the writer and campaign member James Knox, who made "an impassioned impromptu speech" at one of the Prince's bi-annual conservation conferences at Holyrood House in Edinburgh”

www.wikiwand.com/en/Dumfries_House

The upshot is that Charles thought it was worth saving but not as ever at his own expense.

Probably much the same as the way the NHS was pressured by his now defunct (due to fraud allegations) Princes Foundation For Integrated Health to provide the snake oil alternative medicine he was so impressed by.

It is really strange I can't find anything on Save Britains website, especially as they have a list of all their previous campaigns.

And the house is not being held under Save Britains organisation. The Princes Foundation own Dumfries House in spite of not paying a penny for the property.

This is an interesting article. It seems like the Princes Trust borrowed £25million for the project.
And SaveBritain was one of 7 organisations involved in acquiring this house, and it appears they worked on this in the initial stages.

It's great that it is saved for Scotland, and this is from British Heritage and shows a video all about it. Princes Trust isn't mentioned which seems odd. It is a magnificent building and grounds open to the public, a wedding venue and function venue available for hire. It does look absolutely stunning in the video.

This isn’t surprising - Save Britain’s Heritage is a campaigning organisation, not a landowner. Generally it works with other organisations (the National Trust in particular, but other charities also and sometimes private developers) who will take ownership of the property they are campaigning to save once a forward plan is reached.

The Prince’s Foundation couldn’t pay towards the 2007 purchase of the house for the simple reason that it didn’t exist at the time. The Great Steward of Scotland’s Dumfries House Trust was created in 2007 to hold and manage the house after it was purchased, and this was then merged into the newly created Prince’s Foundation charity in 2018. The Princes Charities Foundation, (which backed the £20m loan made to fund the purchase in 2007) was also merged into the Prince’s Foundation.

(Roussette - these bodies are all entirely separate from the Prince’s Trust, which is the other main charity that Prince Charles has created)

This thread is an example of 'No deed goes unpunished'
It is a magnificent building and grounds open to the public, a wedding venue and function venue available for hire. It does look absolutely stunning in the video. 🙄
You don't mention educational opportunities for school children, free access to the grounds, employment in a deprived area.

No I didn't. I don't know it like you know it. You've already said you've been there twice and know the area, and you have pointed all of that out already, why would I parrot what you have said? There is really no need to pick me up on that. My knowledge is coming from online research. Yours is first hand knowledge.

I have no idea on what you mean about no deed etc.

p.s. I did say 'grounds open to the public' by the way

@Serenster discussing this with you is slightly exasperating. You are the one who posted a quote claiming Dumfries House was a Save Britain Heritage Campaign where the quote said the house would belong to Save Britain Heritage. So clearly that was the initial plan, or the quote you posted was wrong?

And Princes Charities Foundation made a £20 million loan but gave not one penny to the purchase of the house.

In summary, Charles worked to put together a coalition of organisations that bought Dumfries House and gave it to his Foundation to own and manage. Charles as usual gave not a penny towards it. Instead, Dumfries House is used to run various projects that Charles supports such as alternative medicine, and courses such as catering that can be found in lots of places. Dumfries House has made massive financial losses.
The whole thing is a massive white elephant. It looks like the income it is generating will struggle even to service the £20 million loan.

Meanwhile Save Britains Heritage campaign on many public buildings in danger of collapsing into rack and ruin that really could have done with Charles support.

I have no idea on what you mean about no deed etc. Well Charles has done something good and people are trying to say things like he is trying to increase his property portfolio. There's plenty to criticise Charles for but this isn't one of them. There's a story in Mail today about Fergie buying a 6 million pound property in London. That's a scandal
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11081913/Fergie-buys-5M-Mayfair-home-short-walk-Ghislaine-Maxwells-house.html

Maybe start a new thread about Sarah Ferguson?

Of course, Charles getting others to pay to buy Dumfries House and then give it to his charity foundation is a scandal. It is a white elephant.

SF is a free loader supported by us and it's appalling. Where she got the money from for that, god alone knows. She didn't have a bean last time her finances were discussed. It appears she's going to stay living on 98 acre Royal Lodge Windsor and rent out these flats.

Charles has done something good saving this for Scotland, but it is just his 'thing' isn't it. Like Poundbury, which was his vision, and with apartments at £2.5M. It's all very grand. This was something he could save and put his name to, the finances I can't work out.