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Tag Archives: duke of york
Prince Charles Accepted $3M in Cash Stuffed Into Bags and Suitcases from Sheik
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Charles’ judgement under fresh scrutiny over bags of cash
The cartoon image of Prince Charles rubbing his hands with glee while chucking shopping bags stuffed full of banknotes into the back of his wine-powered Aston Martin like something out of the irreverent British comedy The Windsors is on the Royalist’s mind today.
The image follows the astonishing revelation that the heir to the throne was personally handed a suitcase containing €1m (just over $1.05m) by a politician representing a rich oil-producing Arab statelet.
“It was one of three lots of cash, totaling €3 million ($3.2m), which Prince Charles personally received from Sheik Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, the former prime minister of Qatar who is nicknamed ‘HBJ,’ between 2011 and 2015,” the London Sunday Times reports.
The story, described as “truly shocking” by a senior ethics official, will cement in many minds Charles’ reputation for financial indiscipline. While it may be a little too much to say it jeopardizes his succession, it certainly poses urgent and new questions about the judgement of the heir to the throne when it comes to money matters.
Late last year, Charles lost his key aide Michael Fawcett, who was forced to stand down from Charles’ foundation after it was revealed he arranged an honor for a billionaire Saudi donor, explicitly in return for donations. Charles denied any knowledge of the transactional arrangement but a reported police investigation into the matter has provided no answers, being discreet to the point of invisibility. Prince Harry pointedly accused his father of being involved in what he described as a “scandal” over the affair.
In the latest self-inflicted disaster to hit Charles, the Sunday Times has revealed that Sheik Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, personally gave Charles bags of cash on three separate occasions between 2011 and 2015.
On each occasion, HBJ is said to have given the prince €1 million in €500 notes—sometimes dubbed ‘bin Ladens’ because of their use by terrorist-linked organized crime gangs. One time the money was stuffed into plastic shopping bags from the luxury Chelsea grocer and department store Fortnum & Mason, which holds a royal charter from the prince. Another time the money was in a suitcase, and the third time it was in a holdall.
Clarence House insisted to the Times that it makes no difference that the money, which was deposited into an account at exclusive bankers Coutts, just happened to arrive in cash and that “all the correct processes were followed.”
However a source described as “one of Charles’s former advisers who handled some of the cash,” told the Sunday Times that “everyone felt very uncomfortable about the situation,” adding that the, “only thing we could do was to count the money and make a mutual record of what we’d done. And then call the bank.”
HBJ, a member of Qatar’s ruling al-Thani family, is a hugely controversial figure, with an estimated personal wealth of $12 billion, having served as Qatar’s prime minister between 2007 and 2013, during which time he cultivated close links with the U.K., which saw the country’s vast sovereign wealth fund invest in Harrods and the iconic London skyscraper the Shard.
Charles was believed to have used his influence to get the Qataris to pull out of the redevelopment of a high profile site in Chelsea called Chelsea Barracks. The High Court said Charles’s involvement in the matter was “unexpected and unwelcome.”
Sir Alistair Graham, former chairman of the committee on standards in public life, told the Sunday Times the revelations were “truly shocking,” saying: “I wouldn’t make a distinction between a politician and a member of the royal family. If the Qatari government wants to make a gift to his foundation, then there are proper ways to do these things rather than handling large sums of cash.”
Beatrice’s card reportedly declined at Glasto
At the other end of the financial scale, Princess Beatrice’s bank card was apparently declined three times at a bar at British music festival Glastonbury. A spy told the Daily Star: “She tried to pay by card but it got declined three times.”
Good news for her dad, Prince Andrew, on the money front, however. The Mirror reports that Author Ingrid Seward told True Royalty TV’s The Royal Beat, “They’re not going to cast him out because he will be more trouble and start talking and giving TV interviews and writing books. They don’t want that again. He will be financially secure, but I would be very surprised if he kept the Royal Lodge.”
Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images
Andrew smiles away
If Prince Andrew is worried about losing his Duke of York title—after 80% of that town said they wanted to cut their link with him—he wasn’t showing it Saturday. The Daily Mail showed him riding a horse cheerily around the Windsor Castle estate.
As The Daily Beast reported, York Central MP Rachael Maskell, has brought forward the “Removal of Titles Bill,” after polls showed that 80 percent of its citizens want to be freed of their link with the shamed royal, who has refused to stop using the title, which was given to him as a wedding present in 1986.
Maskell told the Daily Mail: “Back in February, when we had the focus on the court case, which was being brought against Andrew, my constituents responded that 80% of people wanted the association with the current Duke of York to be broken. And therefore, I met with the clerks here in the Commons to see how it can be achieved.”
She discovered there were “no mechanisms in place, even for the monarch, to remove the title. The only real way it could be done is for Andrew to no longer call himself, by choice, the Duke of York.”
She added: “Using a title like the Duke of York is an ambassadorial role, it carries the name of our city across the world.
“And it’s a city, which is a Human Rights City, the only Human Rights City in England. We are already in a culture clash when we are talking about violence against women and girls and the issues that we are really working hard on in the city, about making York a very safe place.”
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Epstein victim: Andrew photo made me “shake” in terror
Annie Farmer, a victim of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, tells the Sun that the picture of Andrew with Maxwell, his arm around Virginia Roberts Giuffre, makes her shake. Farmer, speaking in advance of Maxwell’s sentencing on Tuesday, said in an impact statement: “I remember sitting at my desk in a Houston hospital physically shaking after seeing the photo of Maxwell with Virginia Giuffre and Prince Andrew because it became clear to me how their scheme had continued.”
“I never would have met Epstein if not for you,” Farmer, who claims the abuse at Epstein and Maxwell’s hands occurred when she was 16, writes. “You opened the door to hell. And then, Ghislaine, like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, you used your femininity to betray us, and you led us all through it.” The pair did “unthinkable things” to her, Farmer says.
Royals rethink colonial legacy
A sign that the royals are at least trying to address the many horrors of Britain’s colonial past comes with the news that Prince Charles wants slavery to be accorded public recognition, in a similar vein to the annual remembrance of the Holocaust.
Charles expressed “personal sorrow” at the U.K. links to the slave trade during a visit to Rwanda last week, no doubt encouraged to speak on the issue by protests about the legacy of slavery on William and Kate’s recent tour of the Caribbean, which was criticized in some quarters as “tone-deaf.”
A senior royal source told the Sunday Times: “He is patron of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and he notes that in the U.K., we now know and learn at school all about the Holocaust, so it is something that is acknowledged and learnt at a national level. That is not true of the transatlantic slave trade, and maybe that is something that should be.
“So, just like the Holocaust Memorial Day, is there some way of doing that? Having a moment, having a way of remembering that?”
Queen Elizabeth II crowns her son Charles, Prince of Wales, during his investiture ceremony at Caernarvon Castle.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
This week in royal history
July 1 is one of the strangest dates in the royal calendar, marking the birth of Princess Diana on that day in 1961, while on the same day eight years later in 1969, Prince Charles became the Prince of Wales at an investiture ceremony at Caernarvon Castle in north Wales.
Unanswered questions
If someone turned up at your house with a million dollars in cash on three separate occasions, might you not think you ought to call the authorities? This provokes the question: will the latest mystery-cash scandal prove merely embarrassing for Prince Charles, or could it get worse and wind up threatening his actual legitimacy as monarch?
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Prince Andrew Cut From Royal Procession as Prince Charles Claims Victory Over Queen
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Prince Andrew was brutally cut out of all public-facing elements of a key royal ceremony Monday, after senior family members rebelled against the queen and demanded that they not be required to appear alongside him in public.
Andrew’s side sought to characterize his exit from a public event known as the Order of the Garter Procession as his “personal decision” but a well-placed palace source told The Daily Beast the move to excise Andrew was a “family decision.”
The last-minute nature of the dramatic palace u-turn is vividly illustrated by the fact that Andrew will be listed on the already-printed official program as participating in the procession.
The queen will not join the procession due to her ongoing mobility issues, but will attend the private lunch, where Andrew will still be a guest. One wonders which lucky individual will be seated next to him.
The Daily Beast understands that Prince Charles was chief among those who made representations to the queen calling for Andrew not to attend the procession. The queen had very much wanted to include Andrew in the procession, and Charles winning this battle of wills is likely to be seen as another sign that the queen is losing her authority over the family, and that Charles is stepping, at least informally, into a quasi-Regent role.
Today’s procession, which is followed by a church service and lunch at Windsor Castle with the queen is a formal part of what is known as “Garter Day,” which honors the members of Britain’s most distinguished order of chivalry, The Order of the Garter.
Garter members include former prime ministers and other senior establishment insiders. Membership is strictly limited to 24, and Tony Blair is the newest member. It is the highest honor in the British system of patronage.
Andrew is a member of the club through the personal gift of the queen, and as such the palace had sought to argue that Andrew was attending in a personal rather than official capacity.
However this is understood to have cut as little ice with other royals as it did with the public. Charles, who began lobbying for a reduced role for his brother over a decade ago, long before his association with Jeffrey Epstein became a mainstay of news coverage of the royal family, is believed to have been particularly concerned that the event could turn into a re-run of Prince Philip’s memorial, when coverage of Andrew escorting his mother by the arm to her seat completely overshadowed the proceedings of the day.
However as parts of the Procession of the Order of the Garter take place in front of the public in Windsor, there were very real fears that Andrew could be booed. Charles is likely to have drawn the line at the risk of exposing one of the most revered institutions of the royal establishment to such contumely.
However the compromise he appears to have been forced to accept is that Andrew will be allowed to participate in the non-public elements of Garter Day, such as Monday’s lunch, and wear the ermine robes of the society to that event.
Andrew’s determination to attend comes hot on the heels of a report that he was lobbying the queen to reinstate him as colonel of the Grenadier Guards, a role which he lost in January along with his HRH styling as the Giuffre case intensified.
The Daily Telegraph quoted a source as saying: “The colonelcy of the Grenadier Guards was his most coveted title and he wants it back. Having remained a Counselor of State, he also believes he should be included at royal and state events.
“Most importantly for him is his status as an HRH and ‘Prince of the Blood’, and he feels that should be reinstated and his position recognized and respected.”
Prince Andrew’s Bizarre Teddy Collection Had to Be Perfectly Positioned on Bed or He Would ‘Scream and Shout’
Prince Andrew, as an adult, had a collection of dozens of fluffy toys which had to be precisely positioned on his bed or he would scream abuse at his household staff, a former royal employee has claimed in a TV documentary due to be screened Tuesday evening in the U.K.
The aide, Paul Page, said in an interview for the documentary, ITV’s Ghislaine, Prince Andrew and the Paedophile, which tracks his relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell and postulates they may have been lovers, that a laminated diagram was kept in a drawer in Andrew’s bedroom at Buckingham Palace showing exactly how his beloved soft toy collection should be arranged, along with cushions emblazoned with words such as “Daddy, “Ducks” and “Prince.”
The laminated instructions said: “When the DOY is staying overnight, place one small teddy & cushion in the turn down.
“When making the bed, place the teddy & cushion next to the teddy on the left-hand side with the necklaces on.”
Page, who worked as a protection officer from 1998 to 2004, told the TV show: “It had about 50 or 60 stuffed toys positioned on the bed and basically there was a card the inspector showed us in a drawer and it was a picture of these bears all in situ.
“The reason for the laminated picture was if those bears weren’t put back in the right order by the maids, he would shout and scream.”
Page was jailed for a £3million fraud scam in 2009, however he is far from the only witness to the duke’s bizarre love of teddies.
According to the Mirror, writer Elizabeth Day also saw the teddies, and said, “It seemed rather strange that a grown man should be so amused by a stuffed toy.”
After his wedding to Sarah Ferguson, his brother Prince Edward strapped a huge brown teddy bear into their going away carriage.
And in 2010, Andrew himself revealed: “I’ve always collected teddy bears. Everywhere I went in the Navy I used to buy a little teddy bear, so I’ve got a collection from all over the world of one sort or another.”
Away from the delights of soft toys, it was reported today that the queen is considering ways to strip Andrew and Prince Harry of their last remaining constitutional roles as Counselors of State. There are four Counselors of State—the others being William and Charles— and the position means that they theoretically take on the queen’s formal duties if she were incapacitated.
A royal source told the Daily Mail: “It is a genuine problem that the palace is looking to address. Can you imagine the Duke of York having to sign official documents, for example, because the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge were both abroad, and the Queen became ill? It’s not an exaggeration to say it could put the monarchy in jeopardy.”
Prince Andrew stripped of royal patronages and military affiliations as sex abuse lawsuit moves ahead
Britain’s Prince Andrew has been stripped of royal patronages and military affiliations — with the queen’s approval — a day after a U.S. district judge rejected his motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre that alleges he sexually abused her when she was 17.
“The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen,” a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said Thursday.
All of his roles have been handed back to Queen Elizabeth and will be redistributed to other members of the royal family, according to a royal source. He also will no longer be using “His Royal Highness” in any official capacities.
Andrew’s lawyers had argued that the lawsuit that is now moving ahead should be thrown out because of a 2009 deal that Guiffre signed with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Judge Lewis Kaplan said the 2009 deal “cannot be seen” to benefit Andrew.
CHRIS JACKSON/AFP via Getty Images
It is possible that Andrew will decide to fight the case in court, but given the negative light that process would shine on his family, most analysts see it as highly unlikely. As a U.K. resident, he could also simply refuse to cooperate with a trial if it does go ahead, but that tactic could be disastrous.
The prince’s best option, CBS News legal analyst Rikki Klieman said, is to try to reach a settlement with Giuffre out of court, to stop the case going to trial. But Giuffre would have to agree to that option, and so far, her legal team has indicated no inclination to do so.
Giuffre, who claims the prince sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions when she was a teenager, told CBS News in 2020 that Andrew “should be panicking,” and that the royal “needs to be held accountable.”
Prince Andrew denies all the accusations and has never been charged with a crime. He claims to have no recollection of meeting Giuffre, despite the two of them being photographed together when Giuffre was a teenager. Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in December of grooming and trafficking minors for sexual abuse, appears in the same photo.
Once regarded as a handsome, playboy prince, Andrew’s name is now indelibly stained by his friendships with convicted sex offenders Epstein and Maxwell.
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