Britain's Prince Charles Linked to Enron Execs Sat Feb 2, 7:34 PM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Prince Charles accepted one million pounds ($1.4 million) from the collapsed energy giant Enron for his youth charity, a spokeswoman for the Prince said on Saturday. The heir to the British throne also dined with senior Enron executives and may have met company boss Kenneth Lay. "The Prince did meet Enron representatives in Houston in 1993," a spokeswoman for Prince Charles told Reuters. "I can't confirm it was Kenneth Lay but it's extremely likely that he was among them along with other senior corporate donors in Houston," she said. She was unable to confirm media reports that the Prince had visited Lay's home. The Texas-based energy company was by then an established donor to Prince Charles's charity for young people, The Prince's Trust. "The first donation came in 1991, when contact was initially made with Enron and that was a 500,000 (pounds) donation which covered a five-year period," a spokeswoman for the Trust told Reuters. "A second donation of 300,000 (pounds) came in around 1996 to cover the three years through to 1999, specifically for a European work away program," she said. The program which Enron helped fund was designed to allow young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, often long term unemployed or ex-offenders, to gain life skills by working on community projects in Europe. Media reports said that Enron executives were invited to functions at the prince's London residence, St. James's Palace. Neither the Prince's Trust nor Prince Charles's spokeswoman could confirm such visits but both said it was likely they had taken place. "We have a large number of corporate donors and corporate social responsibility is increasingly an area that companies are concerned with," the trust's spokeswoman told Reuters. "We work with a vast number of organizations and invite them to events where they'd meet people who'd gone on the programs and benefited from them, anything from awards ceremonies, or on occasion one of our premieres," she said. THE END ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bUrHhl.bVKZIr Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
