Prince Charles involved in a cash-for-access scheme with a shady Russian

The Prince Of Wales Opens The Prince's Trust South London Centre

Over the past six weeks, the British newspapers – mostly the Times of London – have exposed Prince Charles’ sketchy financial dealings in four separate, major stories. The first was about the Duchess of Cornwall’s nephew acting as a middleman “fundraiser” for Tory interests and Prince Charles’ foundation. The second story was about another cash-for-access scheme involving Charles’ foundation, specifically with his work at Dumfries House. The third story was arguably the worst, involving not just cash-for-access, but cash-for-honours – meaning that Charles was basically selling knighthoods to shady major donors to his foundation. That story led to the resignation of Michael Fawcett, and calls for an independent investigation into Charles and his charities. This weekend, the Times revealed the fourth major controversy involving charitable donation and access to Charles.

Prince Charles sent an effusive letter thanking and ‘offering to meet’ a Russian donor seeking British citizenship after his charity received a £535,000 cash gift. The Prince of Wales, 72, told Russian financier Dmitry Leus, 51, he was ‘very much looking forward to seeing’ him and explained how ‘incredibly grateful’ he was to him for his six-figure donation to the Prince’s Foundation. Charles had also met the paid fixer, who arranges meetings with the royal and donors, at a castle residence shortly after Mr Leus’ payment was paid last May, The Sunday Times reports.

However, the Prince’s charity claimed it no longer had the £535,000 donation and previously claimed it had been returned ‘to source’ after questions were raised by its ethics committee about Mr Leus’s suitability as a donor. Previously, Mr Leus was found guilty of money laundering in Russia before seeing his conviction was quashed.

It has since emerged that The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator is now investigating the Foundation’s dealings with Mr Leus.

Russian businessman Dmitry Leus was reported to have sent the Prince’s Foundation more than £500,000 in donations after he was promised a meeting with Charles by a paid ‘fixer’, the Sunday Times reports. The Prince’s Foundation has since challenged this figure, and insist it only received £100,000 from Mr Leus.

The man behind the deal and chairman of Burke’s Peerage, William Bortrick, withheld the first £100,000 of Leus’ donation before sending the rest of it, reports the Times. Weeks later, Mr Bortrick was sent an invitation to the Castle of Mey – the Queen Mother’s home in Caithness, Scotland – where he met Prince Charles and his gardener, the Times reports.

Internally, the charity’s executive director Chris Martin reportedly expressed concerns over Leus and advised Mr Bortrick to delete any online trail linking Leus with the Prince’s Foundation. Despite the ethical concerns and blocked donations, Charles’ right-hand man Michael Fawcett brokered an introductory meeting with Leus and the Prince’s Foundation with the intention of accepting his donation, The Times reports.

[From The Daily Mail]

First of all, Charles is pretty lucky that cash-for-access schemes are complicated and boring. These are not sexy accusations and scandals. They’re dull as dishwater and half of the time, these scandals seem more like “business as usual” for how large charities and foundations are operated anyway. Now, does it look bad? Yes. Of course. It looks like Charles and his people were constantly taking six-figure charitable donations from people they knew were shady as hell. It looks tacky and it looks like money laundering and fraud.

All of which makes me wonder why Charles is being exposed like this, with leaked emails and letters being published in the Times of London. There’s one theory that Charles is leaking this sh-t himself, that he’s doing his own oppo dump so he can control the story and get everything out of the way before he becomes king. Which is a good theory, but I hate to give Chaz that much credit. It feels like the call is coming from inside the house, for sure. But it’s more like someone inside the palace has an axe to grind.

The Prince Of Wales Visits Herefordshire

Photos courtesy of WENN and Avalon Red.

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38 Responses to “Prince Charles involved in a cash-for-access scheme with a shady Russian”

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  1. Kate says:

    These people are just eating each other alive. Wonder what will be left when they are satiated.

    • BabsORIG says:

      I once watched how a giant python killed and devoured a female python. This BR family reminds me very much of this scary documentary. Wisest thing prince Harry ever did was take his little family out of this vipers’ den, let them eat each other alive and self destruct on their own like the freakin’ 🐍🐍that they are.
      OOOOhh I love this pippin’ hot☕️tea.

    • Yup, Me says:

      The Black and Brown people of the world and the commonwealth. Laughing and demanding sovereignty and that Britain return all the $h1+ they stole.

  2. ThEHufflepuffLizLemon says:

    I’m appreciative for the little primer at the beginning, as these stories are starting to run together.
    Now, who on earth inside the house could want Charles smeared for any reason? Hmmmm….

  3. Bunny says:

    I’m wondering if Willie is aware of some of this, hence the “I’m ready to take the throne now” narrative he’s been spouting for years.

  4. Lori says:

    Sophie has the skill set for this type of work. Or at least pointing someone in the right direction for it. Perhaps instead of selling knighthoods Chaz should be working on passing on the DoE to its rightful intended heir.

    • BabsORIG says:

      Sophie isn’t the culprit, Chaz CANNOT give the Duke of Edinburg title to Edward till the queen passes. Unless of course Sophie plans to murder/smother the queen in her sleep, LOL😂 . But joking aside, the Wessexes can not be given the title till Charles ascends to the throne and all his other titles revert to the crown. Likewise, William cannot become Prince of Wales or Duke of Cornwall till the queen passes and the current PoW succeeds her making the PoW title revert back to the crown.

      • Feeshalori says:

        And Charles can take his sweet time granting the POW title to William since it’s not an automatic one like Cornwall. Charles can use that to hold over William’s head and get him in line. Or they both can be in agreement that if divorce for the Cambridges is in the cards, Charles will wait until then so Kate won’t become Princess of Wales if the intention is that William remarries and there won’t be two Princesses of Wales in the picture.

  5. Linny says:

    And he couldn’t get some decent dental work done?

  6. girl_ninja says:

    Seriously. What camp has it in for Chuck? Is it Andrew? Is he even smart enough to come up with a scheme to keep the public eye on his brother? Or is it Will and/or the Middletons?

    What is going on over on Shutter Island?

    • MF1 says:

      Carole Middleton is smart enough to pull this off. So is Sophie. TOB is not but he has people for this kind of thing.

  7. Lorelei says:

    Yeah but Meghan has 16 bathrooms, let’s definitely keep talking about that.

  8. Moderatelywealthy says:

    My guess: the Brexit- At Right folks are trying to tarnish Chaz image.

    Chaz is very committed to environment causes abd is known to have engaged into behind the scenes politics. This dies not sit well with the Alt Right folks.

    They either want to deal with a very frightened, weakened Chaz or, even better, with TOB, a victorian man whose conservative veneer is well known.

    Now, I am not saying this is not someonei in the family leaking….all I am saying is that this orchestrating seems to be more politicaly focused than mere siblings rivalry at play.

  9. KS says:

    Probably another part of why Harry and Meg were so quick to get the hell out of Dodge. Like oh this ship’s about to go up in flames and we want no part of it!

  10. Chelsea says:

    One of the more interesting parts about these stories, most of which originated at The Times, is that the royal reporters are NOT involved in these stories. Neither Valentine Low or Royal Nikkah have a byline on these stories from the Times and Rebecca English didnt have a byline on The Mail’s story on Charles.

    On a related note: Charles held an event at Dumfries House which was at the heart of one of these stories with royal reporters last week and it doesn’t seem any of them asked him about this. Funny that. But there’s NO invisible contract guys.

    • Amy Bee says:

      The Royal rota are not on the bylines involving Andrew-Epstein either. Those stories are written by the crime reporters or the papers’ US editors.

  11. Suri says:

    I suspect Prince Andrew…

  12. Merricat says:

    Lol. It’s been non-stop chaos and decay for the BRF since H&M left. Tell me again how they were the cause of So Much Drama!

  13. India says:

    Definitely from Team Bald and Viper Carole.

    • BothSidesNow says:

      @ India, I’m with you on these two. Ma Meddleton will sick Pedo Uncle Gary to sniff out stories of Chaz, if he can sniff anymore from all the coke he has done. But I wouldn’t put Ma out of the running, she needs her daughter to be queen now!!!

  14. Sofia says:

    I don’t think it’s KP. They’re way too sloppy. Same with the Midds. Don’t think it’s Andrew either, I don’t think he’s smart enough. Plus it seems like someone has some access to Charles’ charity books/records and neither KP/Andrew/Midds seem the type. Could be Sophie but would she have access to his books?

    I think it might be BP courtiers. While some might be Team Charles, some might not want Charles and so, are trying to stop him from being King because these old school courtiers will be put to the pasture and Charles will bring in his own team. It’s self preservation for them. You can up the ante and put your tinfoil tiaras on and say the government is involved. They would prefer King William over King Charles ASAP because Charles may meddle whereas William won’t. In fact the government and courtiers can run the monarchy however they like with William because they know he’d rather be on holiday than do anything whereas Charles will be very involved. Or Christopher Geidt might feel some way about being kicked out and this is him hitting back.

  15. SarahCS says:

    Much as I love a big blockbuster movie, these small screen series can also pack a real punch. I love how The Times just keeps dropping new episodes.

    More of this sort of thing please.

  16. Amy Bee says:

    Someone on Twitter made the point that this could be courtiers from BP trying to weed out people from Charles inner circle as he prepares to become King. I tend to agree with this theory. It also shows the criminality and sleaze that exists in the Royal Family. I can see this being among the number of reasons Harry wanted no part of that life.

    • Tessa says:

      No matter what, I don’t think Charles will “weed out” Fawcett. He will just give him some different work like he did before. ANd give him a good retirement settlement.

      • SnoodleDumpling says:

        Which is probably why they’re not dropping the ENTIRE story all at once. If it’s just this unending drip drip drip of scandal after scandal after scandal continuously escalating, at some point Charles will HAVE to appoint a scapegoat to publicly cut off and cast out or face the possibility of HIMSELF becoming said scapegoat.

        And I’m sure they’ve got more stories they can drop if this whole mess isn’t enough.

  17. Here4Tea says:

    This is the courtiers ‘ work, flexing their muscles before Chas takes over. For all of Fawcett’s alleged transgression, his greatest sin, in their eyes, is that he doesn’t truly belong there; that he * doesn’t have the right pedigree, didn’t attend the right school; he isn’t one of us.* This is classism, pure and simple. I suspect that Charles will take a minor hit but at the end of the day, there will be found to be ‘distance’ between Chas role as figurehead and Fawcett’s role in the day-to-day management of the foundation. Chas will emerge fragrance-free, Fawcett will get another pay-out.

  18. Lizzie Bathory says:

    I actually don’t think this comes from any of the palaces. Like most wealthy people, the Windsors don’t like people scrutinizing their finances. That’s the *one* thing Charles, Andrew, William, the Wessexes & even the Middletons would all agree upon. Don’t look too closely at where their money comes from, or where it goes.

    In July, the Mirror reported that Dmitry Leus has been donating to Tories. In 2019, he tried to donate to a political party but was not allowed because he wasn’t eligible to vote in the UK. And now we know that in exchange for a “donation” to Charles’s charity, a Saudi national was able to get UK citizenship. And once a foreign national buys citizenship, they’re free to buy influence in UK politics via campaign donations.

    So if there’s increased scrutiny about foreign influence on UK politicians at multiple levels of government (and there is), then why not let Charles take the heat for his part in the whole thing? After all, they can’t really get rid of him. So give Charles bad headlines, let the charity commission investigate & quietly release a report later. Shuffle Michael Faucett to a less visible role. And let the cash keep flowing.

    • Here4Tea says:

      I don’t think the Cambridge are smart enough to pull this off. Look how they sh*t the bed prior to the Oprah interview.

      • Lizzie Bathory says:

        Haha–totally agree. Out of the whole bunch the Cambridges are the least competent & considering how dim the whole bunch is, that’s saying something.

  19. Megan H says:

    I….. think this could be on Russia. Supposedly their whole strategy is to sow distrust and division to destabilize other countries. So they organize it. And then they leak it.

    Doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Just that I don’t think anyone in the firm is doing this

    • Here4Tea says:

      Hee hee! Have a dig into Anthony Blunt. There is a rumour that in the immediate aftermath of WW2, the RF packed him off to Germany to retrieve compromising letters and papers belonging to their Nazi cousins. Apparently Stalin knew about their contents before Blunt flew back to UK. It was also believed that he collected artworks and jewellery but these were returned as it looked “unseemly.”

  20. Cee says:

    Welcome to the British Royal Family; may the odds be ever in your favour.

  21. Jessi says:

    Could it be Charles leaking it now so as to use the Andrew sh!tshow as cover? So now it can be handwaved away as old news but also nobody is paying nearly as much attention to it.