A society fixer has been banned by the charity watchdog after nearly £200,000 in donations were transferred to his company’s account instead of The King’s Foundation – an organisation set up by the King to boost his interests.
The Charity Commission said Michael Wynne-Parker was a trustee at the Mahfouz Foundation, founded by a Saudi billionaire to teach the public about the Middle East.
The watchdog began looking into concerns about the charity in 2021, including if payments from donors were used as intended and the trustees’ overall management.
Its investigation followed reports alleging donations from Russian banker Dmitry Leus intended for The King’s Foundation were paid to The Mahfouz Foundation and some of these funds were then transferred elsewhere.
The King’s Foundation was set up by the then Prince Charles in 1986 inspired, according to its website, by the belief that only by taking a holistic view can people create a sustainable future to meet the needs of the world.
The regulator’s probe found trustees had allowed the Mahfouz Foundation’s bank account to be “primarily used as a conduit” to transfer funds on behalf of third parties.
This included deposits into the charity’s bank accounts that donors thought were going directly to The King’s Foundation.
‘Misapplied funds’
A total of £193,730 of the donations intended for The King’s Foundation were identified as having been transferred from the charity’s bank account to Mr Wynne-Parker’s private company’s bank account – a transaction the watchdog said was authorised by the trustees.
Some £106,270 was returned to the donor and the commission’s inquiry secured the repayment of £49,581 by the trustees “to make good losses the charity had incurred as a result of misapplied funds”.
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Angela Ascroft, critical case lead at the Charity Commission, said Mr Wynne-Parker “demonstrated scant regard for the charity’s purposes, instead allowing the charity to be misused as a conduit for funds that were misapplied and misused”.
He has been deemed unfit to serve as a charity trustee and disqualified from holding a senior management position or trustee role in any charity for 12 years.
Cash for honours scandal
The Metropolitan Police launched an investigation in 2022 following a series of newspaper articles about a so-called cash-for-honours scandal.
These stories accused former close confidant of the King, Michael Fawcett, of promising to help Saudi billionaire donor Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz achieve British citizenship and a knighthood.
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Mr Fawcett, Charles’s former valet who rose through the ranks, resigned as chief executive of the then Prince’s Foundation in the wake of the allegations.
It was announced in 2023 that detectives would be taking no further action.
The King’s Foundation says it is inspired by his philosophy of harmony to create a more sustainable future and provides education and training programmes for all ages and backgrounds, from traditional arts and heritage craft skills, to architecture and design, science, engineering, horticulture, wellbeing and hospitality in order to help achieve its aims.
