Prince Charles ‘cash-for-honours’ scandal grows
with fresh allegations
Prince reportedly ‘met at least nine times’ with
William Bortrick, the alleged fixer at heart of the claims
Prince Charles reportedly met with Bortrick in
England, Scotland and Saudi Arabia over the past seven years.
Jamie
Grierson
@JamieGrierson
Sun 19 Sep
2021 18.05 BST
Clarence
House is facing fresh questions over further revelations in the royal “cash for
honours” scandal involving middlemen who reportedly took cuts for setting up
meetings between wealthy donors and the Prince of Wales.
Prince
Charles “met at least nine times” with William Bortrick, the alleged fixer at
the heart of the claims, who is said to have received thousands of pounds to
secure an honour for a Saudi billionaire and brokered a personal thank-you
letter from Charles to a Russian donor, the Sunday Times reported.
Clarence
House has previously said it had “no knowledge” of the practice of paid
intermediaries arranging access to the royal family or honours in exchange for
donations to the Prince’s charities.
Meanwhile,
the Mail on Sunday reports that Charles met with Bruno Wang, who describes
himself as a Chinese philanthropist and donated £500,000 to the prince’s
charity, the Prince’s Foundation.
The
newspaper claimed that Wang is wanted in Taiwan for alleged money laundering
and being a fugitive from justice, allegations he strongly denies, and draws
comparisons between Wang and the Russian banker Dmitry Leus.
Leus was
likewise accused of money laundering and made a donation of £500,000 to the
foundation. Leus’s conviction was overturned.
The Russian
banker reportedly received two invitations to private events at Charles’s royal
residences in Scotland, allegedly secured by Bortrick. They were both cancelled
because of the pandemic and concerns about the donor’s past.
The
allegations have prompted an investigation at the Prince’s Foundation which has
led to Michael Fawcett temporarily stepping down as chief executive. Fawcett
said he fully supports the investigation. Douglas Connell, the chairman of the
Prince’s Foundation, also resigned, citing evidence of possible “rogue
activity” and “serious misconduct” of which he had “no knowledge”.
The Sunday
Times reported that Charles met with Bortrick in England, Scotland and Saudi
Arabia over the past seven years. Bortrick attended donor dinners hosted by Charles
at Dumfries House, the royal residence in Ayrshire; saw the prince in London at
Clarence House, St James’s Palace and Buckingham Palace; and met the prince
over tea and sandwiches at the British embassy in Riyadh.
In summer
2020, Charles, 72, and Bortrick, 48, met at the Castle of Mey, the late Queen
Mother’s former home in Caithness, the newspaper reported.
Weeks
before this meeting, the paper claims Bortrick had brokered a six-figure
donation to the charity from Leus in exchange for a meeting with the prince. He
received a £5,000 (€5,860) cut of the donation for “expenses”.
On 5
August, shortly after the meeting, Bortrick wrote to the Russian: “I have just
had an excellent private visit with HRH the Prince of Wales who appreciates
your generosity and asked me to send his personal good wishes to you.”
The
Prince’s Foundation declined to comment on either articles when approached for
comment.
A
spokesperson for Clarence House told the Guardian: “The Prince of Wales has no
knowledge of the alleged offer of honours or British citizenship on the basis
of donation to his charities and fully supports the independent investigation
now underway by The Prince’s Foundation.”
Bortrick is
the editor and owner of Burke’s Peerage, a genealogical publication that
chronicles the aristocracy. He has used the publishing company behind it to
receive payments for consultancy services to ultra-wealthy individuals seeking
access to the British establishment.
The
Guardian attempted to contact Bortrick through Burke’s Peerage. A spokesperson
for Bortrick told the Sunday Times: “Mr Bortrick is a proud supporter of the
Prince’s Foundation. In his dedication to the foundation, Mr Bortrick has
introduced a number of potential benefactors to the Prince’s Foundation.”
They said
he had met the prince only “in a group setting and never in private”.
Bruno Wang,
who lives in the Cayman Islands, is being pursued in Taiwan for the millions
made in a 30-year-old warships deal overseen by his now deceased father, Andrew
Wang.
A
spokesperson for Wang said Bruno was never involved in the original
transaction.
He said:
“These 30-year-old accusations in Taiwan against his deceased father are
politically motivated and without foundation. When they were made about his
father before the Cayman court in 2014, the Honourable Chief Justice, Anthony
Smellie dismissed them as not only ‘wholly unintelligible’ but ‘scandalous and
vexatious’.”
He added:
“Bruno is committed to supporting charitable endeavours that promote art,
wellness and social inclusion.”
Charles and the Chinese donor who's a wanted man
in Taiwan: So did the Prince know of the allegations when Foundation accepted
tycoon's cash?
Bruno Wang posed for a photograph with Prince Charles
in January 2019
It was taken at the opening of a health and wellness
centre at Dumfries House
Plaque says centre was 'made possible by the
generosity' of Wang's foundation
By IAN
GALLAGHER and JONATHAN BUCKS and KATE MANSEY FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
PUBLISHED:
22:35 BST, 18 September 2021 | UPDATED: 01:19 BST, 19 September 2021
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10005017/Charles-Chinese-donor-whos-wanted-man-Taiwan.html
A a deeply
private – some might even say mysterious – individual, Bruno Wang rarely courts
publicity.
Still, he
was willing to pose for `a photograph with Prince Charles in January 2019 at
the opening of a health and wellness centre at Dumfries House, part of the
Prince's charitable foundation.
Behind
them, a plaque unveiled moments earlier by the Prince prominently records that
the centre was 'made possible by the generosity' of Mr Wang's foundation.
What a
contrast between this cheery image and another of 54-year-old Mr Wang which
now, as then, features on the Taiwanese government's Ministry of Justice
website.
Alongside
an appeal for information, Mr Wang's face looms from what is effectively a
wanted poster accusing him of money laundering and being a fugitive from
justice.
Though he
vehemently denies the allegations, and indeed denies any wrongdoing, Mr Wang –
who describes himself as a 'Chinese philanthropist' – is only too aware that
should he set foot on the island, he would be arrested and put on trial.
Whether
this uncomfortable fact is known to Charles and his advisers is unclear, but it
is perhaps worth drawing a comparison between Mr Wang's donation and one from
Russian banker Dmitry Leus, highlighted last week by The Mail on Sunday in our
'cash for access' revelations that have prompted an investigation at The
Prince's Foundation which has led to Michael Fawcett temporarily stepping down
as chief executive. Mr Fawcett says he fully supports the ongoing
investigation.
Mr Leus
gave £500,000 to the foundation last year only to later learn that its ethics
committee had rejected it, apparently because it did not consider the gift
appropriate.
Like Mr
Wang, Mr Leus was accused of money laundering in his homeland, but the
Russian's conviction was overturned and he was exonerated. Little wonder
perhaps that Mr Leus now feels aggrieved, especially as he hasn't had his money
back.
Some might
forgive him for wondering why Mr Wang (who, it must be said, was not seeking an
honour of any kind in return for his donation) escaped similar treatment.
Mr Wang
would argue that he is innocent, stands no chance of a fair trial in his
homeland and he, too, is a victim of a vexatious prosecution.
It stems
from one of France's biggest political and financial scandals of modern times,
which left a trail of unexplained deaths, nearly half a billion dollars in
missing cash and troubling allegations of government complicity.
The scandal
centred on a £2 billion arms deal between France and Taiwan, signed in 1991.
France agreed to supply Taiwan's navy with six frigates, a deal which Mr Wang's
arms-dealer father, Andrew Wang, helped broker.
It was
beset by allegations of bribery, with Andrew Wang said to have received
millions in kickbacks – claims he always denied. His son was said to have
provided 'assistance to [his father] to secure bribes' – which he adamantly
denies.
Andrew Wang
left Taiwan in 1993 and never returned. It was said that he disappeared before
he was due to be questioned about the murder of a navy captain who was about to
blow the whistle on the kickbacks. Wang Snr, who died in 2015, accused the
Taiwanese of adding the murder allegation only to improve the chances of his
extradition.
At some
point, the rest of his family – his wife and Bruno and his three siblings –
also moved abroad, settling in England.
Taiwan
issued an international warrant for Andrew Wang's arrest, alleging murder,
corruption and breaking defence secrecy laws. Investigators in France and
Switzerland looked into at least some aspects of the transactions. In 2001, a
BBC report said the Swiss authorities 'have now blocked several accounts of Mr
Wang and his family both in Switzerland and in Luxembourg'.
At the same
time, Swiss newspaper Le Temps said the authorities were alerted to the
accounts after a bank official in Zurich became suspicious that Mr Wang's wife
and Bruno were moving documents and millions of dollars into several different
accounts across Switzerland. According to legal documents in the Cayman
Islands, where Bruno now lives, his father once said he could never return to Taiwan
because of 'a sustained media campaign for over 20 years'.
He added:
'I cannot imagine that I or my family can face a fair trial in Taiwan… [after]
my image has been completely demonised by the public statements made about my
role in obtaining the [defence] contract.'
His case
was that all the money he received was legally paid to him. In 2014, a court in
the Cayman Islands dismissed all of the allegations made against him and
described the Taiwanese claim as 'wholly unintelligible' and based on allegations
which were 'hopelessly general and vague'.
But even
after Andrew Wang died in London, aged 86, prosecutors in Taiwan continued
their pursuit of the millions from the warships deal, claiming Bruno and his
family were still 'at large'. In October 2019, the Taiwanese Supreme Court
ruled that Andrew Wang's widow and children were 'innocent third parties' who
could 'not rightly be considered to be co-offenders and who could not be
charged with any criminal offence'.
Last month,
however, the Taipei Times, an English-language newspaper in Taiwan, reported
that a request had been granted to seize more than £300 million in funds held
by the Wang family in Swiss bank accounts. Sources close to the family say the
vast majority of these funds have been released.
Despite the
vociferous claims of innocence, the allegations hung over the Wangs, including
Bruno, for two decades.
Dividing
his time between London and the Cayman Islands, Bruno describes himself as a
'philanthropist, patron of culture and businessman'. His website also describes
him as a 'dedicated practitioner of energy healing and mindfulness' who
established the Pureland Foundation – which supported Charles's wellness centre
– 'to support social, spiritual and emotional wellness and enrich lives through
art and music'.
Moving in
exalted social circles, and often accompanied by his sister, Rebecca, who has
been described as a friend of the Prince of Wales, Bruno has attended events
held by Charles's charitable organisation, the Prince's Trust.
On one
occasion, he was pictured with Prince Edward. In addition to his charitable
ventures, he runs Bruno Wang Productions and has financed several
Olivier-nominated West End shows.
The
Prince's Foundation last night declined to discuss Mr Wang or his donation to
the Dumfries House Wellness Centre, which was also funded by glamorous
Taiwanese businesswoman Christine Chiu and her plastic surgeon husband Gabriel,
the stars of the Netflix series, Bling Empire.
The
Wellness Centre does not represent the first time that Charles has benefited
from Mr Wang's largesse. He also supported Children & The Arts, a charity
the Prince founded to give underprivileged children access to the arts.
The idea
came to him after he visited a school for excluded children in Balsall Heath,
Birmingham, where he saw a class studying Romeo and Juliet. Surprised that the
children had not seen the play performed, Charles invited them to see a Royal
Shakespeare Company production in Stratford.
'My hope is
that children will gain a lasting love of the arts and be confident to walk
into a gallery, museum or theatre and know it's somewhere they belong,' he
said.
But as
laudable as Charles's project was, it has since become drawn into the 'cash for
access' scandal threatening to tarnish his good work.
In 2017,
Hussam Otaibi, a Jordanian merchant banker and a generous financial backer of
Children & The Arts, was appointed its chairman and brought with him
several key employees of his investment fund Floreat.
An art
lover, Mr Otaibi arranged auctions of works by prominent artists, including
Tracey Emin, to raise money for the charity.
According
to Floreat's website, where it describes itself as 'long-term supporters of the
charity', it has raised £240,000 for Children & The Arts by hosting
contemporary art auctions.
By 2019,
however, the charity found itself in financial trouble. According to one
source, donors dried up after Prince Philip stepped back from public life and
Charles was required to take on more duties. 'Once Charles stopped being so
involved with the charity, we struggled to attract the big donors,' the source
said.
Another
source said: 'There was a feeling that you had to say to the charities, 'Well,
you'll have to learn to stand on your own two feet because the Prince is going
to be King one day and he won't be there to help in the same way.' '
Children
& The Arts began the process of winding up but, for reasons that remain
unclear, required £200,000 to complete the process. Last September – at the
alleged behest of Mr Fawcett, who was for many years Charles's most trusted
executive and remains a confidante – £200,000 of Mr Leus's money was
transferred to the charity.
In its
annual report, the charity said: 'Although the charitable fundraising climate
remains highly challenging, the charity has organised itself to secure the
funds of £233,000 to settle its remaining liabilities and undertake the orderly
closure of its business activity throughout 2019/20.
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