Duchess praised ‘kind’ banker who paid her family £1.4m in alleged stolen cash

SARAH, Duchess of York praised a “kind and supportive” banker who paid her family £1.4 million he allegedly stole from a Turkish heiress.

The letter from Sarah Ferguson to Selman Turk was revealed as he was found guilty of contempt of court for failing to provide details of a string of payments and was warned he is facing jail.

The Duke of York, 63, his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, 64, and their daughters Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, received payments totalling £1.4 million out of the more than £40 million Turk is accused of stealing from Nebahat Evyap Isbilen.

In 2019, when the payments were made, the Duchess wrote to Turk telling him that she wished to “honour” him with a dinner at Royal Lodge, the home she shares with her ex-husband on the Windsor estate. The Yorks have agreed a private settlement with Mrs Isbilen, 77, which will keep them out of the complex legal case in which Turk and various offshore companies are being sued.

But High Court judge Sir Anthony Mann – who has never been shown the full settlement – said it “must be treated with caution” and noted “something odd was going on” with the payments.

Lawyers for Mrs Isbilen argue that some of the payments were “part of a scheme” between Tarek Kaituni, a convicted Libyan gun smuggler who had links to Colonel Gaddafi, and Turk “to get moneys to the Duke of York”.

The nature of the relationship between the Duke and Duchess and Turk, or the reason he gave them money, remains unclear.

It is not alleged the Yorks were aware the money was stolen and they are not accused of any wrongdoing. Sir Anthony found Turk, a former Goldman Sachs banker, guilty of contempt after he failed to comply with a court order to disclose details of transactions, including some of the payments to the Yorks. Sentencing was adjourned until today to allow Turk’s lawyers to explain to him the details of his 109-page judgment.

Mrs Isbilen hired Turk to help transfer her assets out of Turkey, where her husband, an MP, is a political prisoner. She has alleged that he tricked her into making one payment of £750,000 to the Duke, after claiming the Royal had helped to secure her a passport.

The money was transferred nine days after Turk won an award for his digital bank business idea from Pitch@palace, the Duke’s Dragons’ Den-style initiative, at St James’s Palace. The Duke paid the money back when court proceedings were first issued.