QuoteA top Buckingham Palace official appeared court today accused of receiving more than £100,000 in bribes in return for awarding contracts for work at royal palaces.
Ron Harper, 62, was deputy property manager at the Royal Household from 1994 until his suspension in 2012. It is alleged that between 2006 and 2011, company directors bribed Harper in return for him awarding them large contracts for work at the palaces.
The maintenance work at Buckingham Palace, St James's Palace and Kensington Palace, was funded by the Civil List, now called the Sovereign Grant, and came straight out of taxpayer's pockets.
Harper, who was made a Member of the Royal Victorian Order by the Queen in 2004, appeared at Southwark Crown Court with eight other men and one woman, who are yet to enter pleas.
More: Buckingham Palace official charged with accepting £100k bribes for royal contracts | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2739935/Buckingham-Palace-official-appears-court-charged-accepting-100-000-bribes-awarding-royal-contracts.html)
Cindy
How is this embarrassing for the Monarchy? - whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?
Even someone being accused of this is embarassing for the Firm-- just as it would be for another company or nonprofit.