The Prince's Foundation was mired in controversy following press allegations
A probe by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) has found that there was no misconduct by the former CEO of King Charles’ charity, the King’s Foundation.
The foundation, formerly the Prince's Foundation, which offers educational programmes to up to 15,000 people a year to create sustainable communities, had been embroiled in controversy following claims across media outlets of “cash for access” and allegations that then chief executive, Michael Fawcett (pictured above left) offered to secure Saudi billionaire Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz a knighthood and UK citizenship in return for donations.
A story in the Sunday Times also alleged that Russian businessman Dmitry Leus had tried to donate £200,000 to the Prince’s Foundation (as it was known then) after being put in touch with Michael Fawcett (its CEO at the time).
His gift was subsequently rejected. Leus had been convicted of money laundering in Russia before the conviction was overturned.
The donation is alleged to have then been sent via the Mahfouz Foundation, without Leus’s knowledge and obscuring the origins of the money.
The Prince of Wales (as King Charles was then) said he had “no knowledge” of the allegations and Mahfouz denied any wrongdoing. The charity launched an inquiry into the claims in 2021, and in 2022 the Metropolitan Police investigated before saying that no action would be taken.
The OSCR inquiry was divided into two separate strands. The first strand considered the historical governance of the charity. The second strand looked at the charity’s current and future governance arrangements.
The inquiry found the historical governance of the charity had sometimes failed to reach the standard required, in respect of its approach to decision making and record keeping. However, the inquiry did not find evidence of misconduct by any of the former or current trustees.
The report stated that in considering these issues, the evidence “does not indicate or demonstrate a sustained pattern of inappropriate governance or serious failings in the governance of the charity as a whole.”
In relation to the charity’s former CEO, the inquiry found that some of his actions resulted in the charity being exposed to substantial risk. It was unacceptable that he did not brief the charity trustees on some of these serious issues as soon as they arose.
By not doing so the former charity trustees’ ability to react to the risk faced by the charity was hindered, the report said.
It concluded: “Based on all the information gathered, OSCR does not consider that there was misconduct on the part of the former CEO.”
Dumfries House is the foundation’s headquarters in Ayrshire, an18th-century building set in 2,000 acres of land and features a large collection of Chippendale furniture.
The estate's education campus offers nature-inspired learning and traditional craft skills programs.
It also operates the Castle and Gardens of Mey - Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mother's holiday home from 1952 to 1996 in Caithness.
