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Secret tapes have captured Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt claiming royal advisers asked him to cease payments to the then Prince Charles, outside of charitable donations, to avoid the appearance of a royal scandal before Charles’ accession to the throne.
Pratt’s description of his financial dealings with Charles is captured on covert audio recordings of the Australian businessman in which he discloses how he uses his wealth to cultivate powerful global figures, including the royal, in the hope they will one day be “useful”.
In the only known picture of the businessman and the royal together, Anthony Pratt (left) talks football with the then Prince Charles and Australia’s then high commissioner to the UK, George Brandis, at Australia House in London in 2018.Credit: Ella Pellegrini
In one recording, made in mid-2022, Pratt is also heard saying how an assistant to King Charles, who was then Prince of Wales, contacted him to say he should limit payments only to donations to the senior royal’s charities.
“They’re just so close to becoming the king that he doesn’t want me to bring down the monarchy,” Pratt said.
“He just doesn’t want the appearance of anything. It’s legal, but he doesn’t want to look like [anything improper].”
The precise nature of the discussed payments from Pratt to the royal is unclear and Pratt did not respond to written questions, hanging up on a reporter from this masthead when called last week.
There is no suggestion that the payments were in any way improper, and Buckingham Palace did not respond to questions.
On the tapes, Pratt also referred to a recent controversy surrounding the Prince’s Foundation charity in the UK, which was under investigation by police over an alleged cash-for-honours scandal involving a Saudi tycoon.
“He [Charles] just got into trouble for giving somebody a knighthood in exchange for money,” Pratt said.
The Saudi scandal involved correspondence between Charles’ then senior aide Michael Fawcett and Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz, in which his donations to the then prince’s charity were alleged to have been linked to supporting the Saudi’s citizenship application and a knighthood.
Scotland Yard closed its 18-month investigation in August and no charges were laid, prompting criticism from some British MPs. Fawcett resigned as chief executive of the royal charity.
Pratt is also recorded pondering the likelihood of a royal honour.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get a knighthood. I don’t really want one to be honest because it’s like everyone’s got one,” Pratt said.
The revelation comes after a joint investigation by The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes uncovered separate audio recordings of the billionaire talking about his relationship with “mafia”-like Donald Trump. Trump on Monday rejected any wrongdoing and described Pratt as a “weirdo”.
On the 2022 recordings, Pratt says he believed the then Prince of Wales was “undervalued political stock”.
“My superpower is that I am rich … so I am useful to him [Charles],” Pratt said.
While the precise amount of payments Pratt has made to Charles’ organisations over their long association is not known, the businessman boasts on the recording of making multiple payments of at least $100,000 a year.
Leaked financial records regarding Pratt’s donations and consultancy payments refer to a “final payment HRH (His Royal Highness)” of $182,116 in 2021.
Charles became King after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in September last year. Pratt and Charles have been on friendly terms for years, holding private meetings in London, exchanging letters and supporting charities together.
In 2013, Pratt became the founding patron of Charles’ Australian charity, the Prince’s Trust Australia. He has donated several million dollars since then to bankroll its operations, according to records filed with Australia’s charities regulator.
The charity provides support to young people and Defence Force veterans and has former foreign minister Julie Bishop as chair of its board of trustees.
At Pratt’s New York penthouse, framed letters of thanks from Charles adorn the walls. In a letter on Clarence House letterhead, sighted by this masthead, Charles thanked Pratt for the portrait he commissioned to mark the future king’s 70th birthday in 2018.
Charles suggests in the letter he would find a large wall at Dumfries House, an 18th-century country mansion on a Scottish estate owned by the Prince’s Foundation, on which to hang the painting.
King Charles and Camilla unveil Ralph Heimans’ portrait, commissioned by Anthony Pratt, during a ceremony at Australia House in London in 2018.Credit: AP
“Whatever the case, I have been utterly overwhelmed by your extraordinary kindness and support over the years and I now look forward, with your help and assistance, to advance the cause of my Prince’s Trust in Australia. Yours ever, Charles.”
In another letter, seen by this masthead, this time from 2016 and on stationery from Charles’ Scottish retreat, Birkhall, the royal thanked Pratt for his Christmas present and noted how it had “raised my spirits” at a special time of year.
Charles and Pratt most recently met in London in May last year, shortly before the future king opened parliament in place of his ailing mother. He was received by the then Prince of Wales at Clarence House twice in 2020 and 2013, according to the royal family’s Court Circular.
“I just like having a cup of tea with him every year,” Pratt is recorded as saying of his relationship with Charles.
Trump swings back
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has dismissed accounts of his conversations with Pratt as “fake news” and insisted their discussions were focused on economic development.
After recent allegations Trump had leaked classified US submarine fleet details to Pratt, the covert recordings revealed the billionaire claiming the former president also disclosed non-public details about US military action in Iraq and a private conversation with Iraq’s leader.
Trump has not responded to an inquiry from this masthead for comment but took to his Truth social platform to attack The New York Times′ reporting of the tapes.
“The Failing New York Times story … about a red-haired weirdo from Australia, named Anthony Pratt, is Fake News,” he wrote.
“I never spoke to him about Submarines, but I did speak to him about creating jobs in Ohio and Pennsylvania, because that’s what I’m all about – jobs, a great economy, low taxes, no inflation, energy dominance, strong borders, no endless wars, low interest rates, and much more.”
The New York Times meanwhile reported a statement from Trump saying the information on the tapes was coming from “sources which totally lack proper context and relevant information”.
Pratt gained access to Trump by spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on membership and event fees at the ex-president’s private Florida club, Mar-a-Lago.
Pratt is heard on the tapes simultaneously admiring and besmirching Trump and comparing him to a mafia figure “with balls” who uses henchmen to do his dirty work.
In claiming he had paid a fee of “about a million bucks” to Rudy Giuliani in return for the Trump lawyer attending Pratt’s birthday party, the Visy boss explained that “Rudy is someone I hope will be useful one day”.
This year, Trump and Giuliani were both charged with criminally subverting the 2020 presidential election.
Trump also defended his relationship with Pratt in a separate statement quoted by The New York Times.
“He’s a member of the most successful club in the country, Mar-a-Lago, and from a friendly country in Australia, one of our great allies,” Trump said.
“I don’t know him well, but he seemed like a nice person. He built a factory in Ohio and created American jobs, which I’m in favour of.”
Watch the 60 Minutes episode here.
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