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Before the latest release of the Epstein files, it was thought most likely that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor would face arrest over allegations of sexual misconduct towards women trafficked by the financier.
The former prince had been accused of rape by the late Virginia Giuffre, which he consistently denied. In 2022, he paid her a reported £12m to settle a civil case she had brought against him.
The release of millions of documents gathered during investigations into Jeffrey Epstein last month exposed the former Duke of York to an entirely new line of police inquiries – the possibility that he had used his role as UK trade envoy to share confidential information with Epstein and others.
On Thursday morning, Mr Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested by Thames Valley Police at his home on the Sandringham Estate on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
Earlier this month, The Telegraph revealed that emails sent to Epstein by Mr Mountbatten-Windsor when he was a trade envoy allegedly show that he shared confidential information with the convicted paedophile.
In October 2010, Mr Mountbatten-Windsor forwarded official reports of his visits to Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Shenzhen in China written by Amit Patel, his then special assistant. The reports were sent to Epstein by Mr Mountbatten-Windsor just five minutes after he had received them from Mr Patel.
In his infamous Newsnight interview in 2019, Mr Mountbatten-Windsor said he had last seen Epstein in early December 2010 to tell him he was breaking off their friendship.
However, emails released by the US department of justice show that on Christmas Eve the same year, he messaged Epstein and sent him a confidential briefing about investment opportunities in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, where reconstruction was being funded by the UK government.
Titled Helmand: High Value Commercial Opportunities for Foreign Investment, and written on Dec 19 2010, the memo disclosed that the main towns in the province, Lashkar Gah and Gereshk, “have secure industry sites in design and under development by DFID [the Department for International Development]”.
The briefing detailed business opportunities including “significant high value mineral deposits” and the “potential for low-cost extraction” of raw materials including gold, iridium, uranium, thorium, marble, oil and gas”.
Trade envoys have a duty of confidentiality, according to government rules, which still apply after they are no longer in the role. Mr Mountbatten-Windsor was a UK trade envoy from 2001 to 2011.
He and Epstein planned to launch a business together in China years after Epstein was convicted of a child sex offence and while Mr Mountbatten-Windsor was still a trade envoy, the emails previously revealed by The Telegraph appear to show.
Business discussions between the pair, which were conducted through a liaison called David Stern, apparently continued for more than five years after Epstein was released from prison.
Mr Stern, an aide to Mr Mountbatten-Windsor, first floated the business venture to Epstein in an email on July 24 2010, when the paedophile was still under house arrest. The email refers to the former Duke of York as “PA”, short for Prince Andrew.
Epstein was not the only person who was sent allegedly confidential information by Mr Mountbatten-Windsor during his time as trade envoy.
In February 2010, the then Duke of York asked Amanda Thirsk, his deputy private secretary, to obtain an internal government memo about the Icelandic financial crisis.
Ms Thirsk emailed Michael Ellam, the Treasury’s director general of international finance, asking for a briefing note. At the time, Britain and Iceland were engaged in a diplomatic row over British deposits lost in the 2008 banking crisis.
On Feb 8, 2010, Ms Thirsk wrote: “The Duke of York met with the Prime Minister of Iceland at Davos and would very much like to receive an update note on the latest position between the UK and Iceland on the matter of the deposits and the deposit scheme.”
Ms Thirsk received the briefing note from a different civil servant at the Treasury a week later, and forwarded it to Mr Mountbatten-Windsor.
Two hours later, Mr Mountbatten-Windsor forwarded it to Jonathan Rowland, his close friend and the former chief executive of Banque Havilland, a bank that had bought assets from a failed Icelandic lender a year earlier.
He wrote: “I pass this on to you for comment and a suggestion or solution?
“The essence is that Amanda is getting signals that we should allow the democratic process [to] happen before you make your move. Interested in your opinion? A.”
He faces separate allegations regarding his potential involvement in Epstein’s trafficking of women and girls.
Several UK police forces said they were assessing whether to investigate allegations that Epstein trafficked women into regional airports on his private jet, with Mr Mountbatten-Windsor alleged to have been on at least one of these flights.
Thames Valley Police said: “As part of the investigation, we have today (19/2) arrested a man in his sixties from Norfolk on suspicion of misconduct in public office and are carrying out searches at addresses in Berkshire and Norfolk.”
The Thames Valley force covers Windsor, where Mr Mountbatten-Windsor lived at Royal Lodge until he moved out earlier this month.
Mr Mountbatten-Windsor has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in relation to the allegations of both sexual misconduct and misconduct in public office.
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