Duke of York ‘used pseudonym’ to set up company with sports equipment billionaire

THE Duke of York used the pseudonym “Andrew Inverness” to set up a business with a sports retail tycoon, it has emerged.

The Duke reportedly used the name as he launched Naples Gold with Johan Eliasch, the Swedish billionaire chief executive of global sports equipment company Head, in November 2002.

The two friends, both “active” directors in the company, met in the Nineties when Mr Eliasch, 57, was organising a charity tennis match between Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe at Buckingham Palace. Andrew Inverness is a “professional consultant” to the firm, registered in London, and has the same birthdate as the Duke, Feb 19, 1960, according to Companies House.

The Earl of Inverness is a subsidiary title given to the Duke in 1986.

The pseudonym was chosen “in order to avoid media attention” until the company was “up and running”, according to a source “with knowledge” of its formation, the Daily Mail reported.

The newspaper claims that the firm has filed paperwork since its inception, including a recent set of accounts that show no trading activity, to Companies House earlier this week.

But the firm does not appear to have ever generated income or spent money, with its official status listed as “dormant”. Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the claims.

The Duke has never publicly spoken about Naples Gold Ltd, meaning there has been no official scrutiny of its conduct. It was revealed earlier this month that Andrew Inverness had a 40 per cent holding in Inverness Asset Management, a company set up with David Rowland, a property developer.

The disclosures were made amid reports the Duke failed to attend the Grenadier Guards annual dinner despite being expected as Colonel of the regiment. He withdrew from public duties last month after a TV interview about his friendship with the disgraced financier Jeffery Epstein.