Duke owns companies under ‘Andrew Inverness’ title

Royal may have been trying to avoid scrutiny using assumed name to set up private investment fund

THE Duke of York set up a private investment fund under an assumed name to channel deals brokered in Buckingham Palace, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. The Duke owns four linked companies registered at Companies House under the name “Andrew Inverness”. He was given the title Earl of Inverness in 1986.

But critics will suggest that in deliberately choosing to register the businesses under “Andrew Inverness”, the Duke was attempting to avoid scrutiny.

The first business, Urramoor Limited, was incorporated in February 2013, 18 months after the Duke was stripped of his UK trade envoy role over his association with Jeffrey Epstein.

There is almost no detail in the public domain about Urramoor and it does not have a website. But a Ussouth African investment firm that had a tie-up with Urramoor described the company as “The Private Investment Office of HRH Duke of York”.

Three further Urramoor companies have been registered in the past six years, including Urramoor Property Ltd and Urramoor Hydrocarbons, which was jointly run with Bulent Goktuna, a Turkish tycoon. Urramoor Hydrocarbons was set up in 2014 but shut down less than two years later without publishing any accounts.

Urramoor is run by Libby Mitford Ferguson, 51, a barrister who runs her own separate property company. Ms Ferguson – who is not related to the Duke’s ex-wife – was on the guest list for an event at Buckingham Palace at which tech start-up companies tried to attract investors.

The Pitch@palace event was another commercial enterprise set up by the Duke. It is not clear if Urramoor was involved in negotiating deals at the Pitch@palace event. Last December, a representative of Urramoor attended an agricultural investment conference held in London. Ms Ferguson declined to comment when approached.

In a text, she wrote: “There is no story about Urramoor. It is a dormant company and about to be struck off.”

The most recent “micro entity” accounts for Urramoor Ltd show creditors are owed more than £180,000 but gives no information to their identity.

Urramoor Property Ltd lists as its director Amanda Thirsk, the Duke’s former private secretary. It shows no activity in its latest accounts. Asked about the companies, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said it was not something they would comment on.

The Telegraph has found evidence of the Duke using the name “Andrew Inverness” to make hotel bookings and on one occasion in a business deal that went wrong. He was listed as a creditor when a luxury ski holiday company offering high-end chalets in the Alps went bust, owing the Duke £27,000, as long ago as 2009.