If you can't read the article. Here's a transcript.
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.
Re: The emails that show why A M-B has been arrested
The penalty for the offenses Andrew has committed is possibly life in prison. The e-mails nailed Andrew's being complicit in and carrying through illegal actions. Like I said, Andrew was for sale, "if you give me the money, perks or both, I'll do whatever you want", plus I'm sure he threw in his royal status as his perk. There was a former UK trade envoy featured on a podcast I was listening in on. He said he was livid when Andrew was name as trade envoy. He talked to the government about his concerns, namely Andrew's lack of any experience and....he could be manipulated. No one listened. Of course, Andrew's being chosen was pushed by the Monarch, also.
Re: The emails that show why A M-B has been arrested
Andrew had been passed over for a promotion in the Navy and it was clear his career there had peaked. He needed a "suitable" job so the trade envoy was reassigned and Andrew was given the job. A very bad call.
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Re: The emails that show why A M-B has been arrested
Andrew had zero experience with business and trade and he just wasn't suited for it. I got into trouble for saying so on the old AGR and even on the old ATR. He wasn't suited for anything except service as a pilot in the military. That was it.
Of course, Andrew's being chosen was pushed by the Monarch, also.
When it was first suggested A M-W be made a Trade Envoy, in 2001, it been said that it was the then Prince of Wales who warned about his unsuitability. Of course all Charles could do, at the time, was advise. A M-W was the favoured younger son, sadly.
Re: Trade Envoy
Posted by Cynthia on February 21, 2026, 10:56 am, in reply to "Trade Envoy"
I wonder what the duke of Kent thinks about it, as Andrew's predecessor as trade envoy.
Re: Trade Envoy
Posted by Hollie24 on February 21, 2026, 11:58 am, in reply to "Re: Trade Envoy"
He must be absolutely horrified and appalled. Gentlemen don't behave like Andrew.
Re: Trade Envoy
Posted by Nellie on February 21, 2026, 5:21 pm, in reply to "Re: Trade Envoy"
I recall reading quite some time back that the Duke of Kent was not at all happy about having to make way for Andrew. Just these last days I read that both Blair and Mandelson were very much in favour of apppointing Andrew. And many times I have read that Charles cautioned against Andrew for the job. Apologies that I cannot supply sources, because I have been into so many.
Re: Trade Envoy
Posted by Susan T on February 23, 2026, 10:04 am, in reply to "Re: Trade Envoy"
At that time, Charles was using Mark Bolland to smear both his brothers in the media. The Daily Telegraph reported that any suggestion put forth as to what Andrew's role should be was challenged by Charles.
Charles already pushing for his slimmed down monarchy which was consist of his parents, himself and any future spouse, and his sons (who were only 18 and 16 years old) and their future spouses.
He clearly had an agenda, so it's not surprising that his parents didn't listen to him. No matter what "job" they suggested for Andrew, he was not going to approve.
King Charles was warned as long ago as 2019 that the Royal Family’s name was being ‘abused’ by Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s business associations, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
In a bombshell email, a whistleblower told the Palace that the former Duke had secret financial links to controversial millionaire financier David Rowland, who was abusing his royal links.
Messages seen by this newspaper also appear to show that Andrew – who was sensationally arrested on Thursday over suspicions of misconduct in public office – allowed Mr Rowland to effectively join in with his official duties.
The cache of emails threaten to draw Charles further into the crisis, triggered by Andrew’s links to Jeffrey Epstein, and allegations he passed potentially confidential and sensitive documents to the convicted paedophile.
Andrew once told Epstein that Mr Rowland was his ‘trusted money man’. The banker and his son Jonathan joined Andrew on trips he made in his official capacity as a taxpayer-funded trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, visiting places such as China and former Soviet states.
Over a period of several years, Andrew repeatedly alerted Mr Rowland to business opportunities arising from his work.
Mr Rowland once gave Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson £40,000 to help clear debts and, in 2017, paid off a £1.5million loan for Andrew.
In August 2019, a whistleblower who had detailed knowledge of Andrew’s business dealings with Mr Rowland sent an email to Charles, then Prince of Wales, via the royal lawyers Farrer & Co, warning of ‘David Rowland’s abuse of the Royal Family’.
It said: ‘HRH the Duke of York’s actions suggest that his Royal Highness considers his relationship with David Rowland more important than that of his family.’
The whistleblower then sent a second email to Mr Rowland himself, copying in Clive Alderton, Charles’s private secretary, and Mark Bridges, the late Queen’s solicitor at Farrer & Co.
That message said: ‘The evidence provided unequivocally proves that you have abused the Royal Family’s name.’
The email further alleged that Mr Rowland ‘paid HRH The Duke of York to procure a Luxembourg Banking Licence’ for his private bank, Banque Havilland, and included what were claimed to be Andrew’s bank account details.
The whistleblower email forms part of a raft of new MoS revelations about Andrew’s business activities, including:
Andrew told Jonathan Rowland he’d ‘had a very supportive chat’ with PM David Cameron and Labour leader Ed Miliband, apparently at Prince William’s wedding in April 2011, when questions were being raised over his trade envoy position following this newspaper’s publication of the now infamous photograph of him clutching 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre. Andrew secretly used an official trade mission to help strike a multi-million-pound deal for his business associates to sell oil to China, with the hope of making ‘tons of money’ with Epstein. A British ambassador warned the Government more than two decades ago that Andrew’s behaviour as trade envoy was damaging his country and the Royal Family.
The MoS can also reveal that Andrew invited Jonathan Rowland to a meeting at Buckingham Palace attended by the UK’s ambassador to Montenegro to help boost the Rowlands’ business ambitions.
The ambassador put government staff at the Rowlands’ disposal, while Andrew gave David Rowland his schedule for a trip to Montenegro as UK trade envoy.
Emails show that a British diplomat in Moscow told the Rowlands the Palace event was ‘a great success’ and connected them with the British embassy in the Serbian capital Belgrade, which covered Montenegro at the time. ‘If there is anything the commercial team… can do to help, please do not hesitate to contact’ them, he wrote, copying in the relevant official.
Charles was only the POW then, so what could he do? Tell the Queen? He didn't have the power to. It sounds like many government higher-ups were aware of, or suspected, what Andrew got up to (he wasn't exactly subtle), and did nothing. If they'd wanted him out, not even the Queen could have done much to save him. Who else was benefitting from Andrew's activities? Andrew, Rowland, Epstein...are we going to get a whole murderers' row here?
And good Lord, Sarah was begging money from EVERYONE. At least 60,000 in various loans from Epstein, 40,000 from Rowland, thousands from other "friends," not to mention all her cash for access schemes plus, I have absolutely no doubt, a bit here and there from her former mother-in-law. I bet we're going to find out she got hundreds of thousands from various UAE, Kuwaiti, and Qatari sheikhs... How could one woman, even one as stupid and narcissistic as Sarah, lose that much money? And where's her shame and embarassment? I can't even begin to comprehend the disaster she's created--she and Andrew both have created.
If Charles had been warned then Elizabeth and Philip also knew. I can't imagine this was kept from them. They had to have run interference to save Andrew. This might be why he was trade envoy for only two years.
Yes, the Queen and Philip had to have known. Were they assured by Andrew that he hadn't violated any laws, and did they choose to believe him? Were they told that the issues would be handled and resolved discreetly by the government? I don't know if we'll get any answers.
2001 to July 2011, Andrew worked with UK Trade & Investment, part of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, as the United Kingdom's Special Representative for International Trade and Investment. From 2001 until June 2007, Tony Blair was the PM, followed by Gordon Brown (June 2007 - May 2010), and David Cameron (May 2010 - remained of time period Andrew held the position).
His suitability for the role was challenged in the House of Commons by Shadow Justice Minister Chris Bryant in February 2011.
The change of Government from Labour to Conservative wasn't the only thing that happened in May 2010. That's when Fergie was filmed by the News of the World offering Mazher Mahmood, an undercover reporter posing as an Indian businessman, access to Andrew for £500,000. Coincidence?
Anyhow, I don't get the point of the article claiming that Charles was warned as early as 2019 about Andrew. By 2019, the horse had long ago left the barn, and everybody would already have been aware that there was trouble ahead.
And as to telling the Queen, assuming she didn't know anything, wouldn't the logical person to do that be the PM?
By 2019, that horse had skipped over all the hills and was galloping straight into the horizon, with Fergie hanging like a limpet from its neck.
Yes, the PM would have been the logical person to tell the Queen. I think she had to have known about Andrew, even without the PM officially telling her. Subtlety is not Andrew's strong suit and his activities had to have been known.