Daily Mail

Charles’s charities took cash linked to tax haven

- By James Burton Chief City Correspond­ent

PRINCE Charles was dragged into a money laundering row last night after his charities accepted £152,000 from a Russian banker to help restore a stately home.

The Prince of Wales’s charities reportedly took the cash from Ruben Vardanyan, then head of investment bank Troika Dialog. It is understood the funds – handed over between 2009 and 2011 – were used to help pay for the rescue of Dumfries House, an Ayrshire stately home which had fallen on hard times.

The money is said to have been transferre­d by Mr Vardanyan to the Prince’s Charities Foundation from Quantus Division, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands tax haven.

Quantus is being probed by prosecutor­s in a money laundering investigat­ion, and was allegedly part of a network of 70 offshore companies used to shift £3.5billion of suspicious money into the US and Europe.

In addition to the donation via Quantus, Mr Vardanyan raised a further £1.5million for Dumfries from Russian businessme­n, it is claimed.

The prince reportedly thanked them with a

‘Shifting suspicious money into Europe’

black-tie dinner in 2014. Mr Vardanyan told The Guardian that Quantus was an independen­t arm of his investment bank, helping wealthy private clients manage their money.

He was never involved in its operations or management, did not personally oversee transactio­ns or client accounts, and had no day-to-day involvemen­t in its activities, the newspaper reported. He did not deny benefiting from funds held there but there is no suggestion that Mr Vardanyan did anything illegal.

It is understood that Troika Dialog has not been fined by any regulatory body or law enforcemen­t agency and at all times observed internatio­nal standards of transparen­cy and compliance.

Clarence House said that Prince Charles had no involvemen­t in decisions around the fundraisin­g done by his charities.

A spokesman for the charities said: ‘The charities apply robust due diligence processes in accordance with Charity Commission and Scottish Charity Regulator guidelines as well as legislatio­n relating to money laundering, the Bribery Act, terrorism and political activity.

‘The allegation­s made against these individual­s have only emerged well after their involvemen­t with the charities ceased in 2014 and, as such, could not have been considered at the time.’

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