PLAN TO WOO DUKE’S WEALTHY FRIENDS
So does this help explain how he funds his billionaire lifestyle?
PRINCE Andrew and his friend, the controversial property tycoon David Rowland, jointly owned a company in a secretive Caribbean tax haven that was to be used to cash in on the Duke’s Royal and political connections. An extraordinary document, seen by The Mail on Sunday, reveals how the firm was registered in the British Virgin Islands with a plan to persuade Prince Andrew’s wealthy ‘contacts’ to sink millions of pounds into an offshore investment fund – promising them tax-free income.
Our revelation raises troubling questions about the Prince’s mysterious finances, which have come under intense scrutiny in the wake of his public humiliation over his links with Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire sex offender.
There have been questions about the source of Andrew’s wealth because his only official income amounted to a £20,000-a-year Royal Navy pension and a reported £249,000 paid privately each year by the Queen to run his official office.
For a decade, the Duke of York worked full-time as Britain’s roving ‘trade ambassador’, sent on taxpayer-funded trips aimed at encouraging foreign investment in UK companies.
The official role enabled Andrew to travel the globe, rubbing shoulders with wealthy business leaders, sprinkling his Royal stardust on influential politicians and heads of state. Now it can be revealed that at the same time as carrying out his Government-backed duties, the Queen’s second son was in business with former British tax-exile Rowland and his son Jonathan.
Worth a reported £612million, the pair head a sprawling family business empire.
David Rowland owns the largest private estate in Guernsey, which boasts a huge bronze statue of the financier unveiled by Prince Andrew. Nicknamed ‘Spotty’ after becoming a millionaire by the youthful age of 24, David Rowland was once described as being ‘like an older surrogate brother’ to the Duke.
Nine years ago, the cigar-loving tycoon stumped up £40,000 to help pay off the vast debts of Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.
The Rowlands’ plan, according to a document seen by this newspaper, was to woo the super-rich contacts Andrew amassed using his Royal status into investing millions of pounds in the potentially lucrative offshore fund.
David Rowland makes no secret of the fact that he has acted as a financial adviser to Andrew. But the detailed five-page business prospectus reveals for the first time that the Prince held a 40 per cent stake in a company owned by Rowland’s family business, Blackfish Capital Management.
Called Inverness Asset Management (IAM), it was registered in the British Virgin Islands, a stunning paradise playground for billionaires and one of the world’s most notorious tax havens.
IAM was set up, the document says, because of the ‘very long’ and ‘successful’ relationship between ‘DR [David Rowland] and HRH Prince Andrew.’
The Duke of York also enjoys the title the Earl of Inverness.
The company was to target superrich investors, many of whom Andrew would have met during his globetrotting trade role and official Royal duties, and persuade them to put money into a fund structured in the Cayman Islands, another tax haven.
Only those with at least $ 1million (£775,000) to spare would be allowed to invest in the scheme called The Blackfish Money Plus+ Fund. The product was not to be sold to the ‘wider public’.
The 2007 document goes on to explain a plan to exploit ‘contacts of IAM, consisting of Royal Families, HNW [high net worth] families, Heads of State and Government institutions.’
The revelation that Andrew was involved in a company seeking investment into a controversial tax haven will heap more pressure on the beleaguered Prince – especially given his role between 2001 and 2011 was to promote British firms and inward investment into the UK. Secrecy surrounding businesses’ activities in the British Virgin Islands make it impossible to know if the venture ever made any money for Andrew, or if the Blackfish Money Plus+ Fund ever operated. But The Mail on Sunday has discovered that IAM existed until March this year.
Serious questions have been raised about how Andrew funds his extravagant lifestyle after he told Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis in his damaging BBC interview last month that his tawdry association with billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein had been a ‘very useful’ entree into a world awash with wealthy and glamorous business people.
The Prince seemed to infer that the people Epstein introduced him to could assist with his official trade role. However, it has been suggested they also had the ability to enhance his own personal business interests.
Since leaving the Royal Navy in 2001, according to reports, Andrew has leveraged his Royal status and the wealthy contacts made during the course of official work on behalf of British taxpayers to act as a facilitator, helping businessmen set up lucrative deals all over the world.
If so, the deals and the commission he earned on them have remained secret but last week were cited as an explanation as to how Andrew appears to have amassed enormous wealth. On Sunday, in a highly unusual intervention, a friend attempted to lay to rest suggestions that Andrew had exploited
They planned to woo contacts Andrew had met on Royal duties
his Royal status to secure multimillion pound commissions.
The friend told The Sunday Times: ‘The fact is that all his wealth ultimately derives from gifts from the Queen and none of it comes from business dealings… he has never earned or expected any introduction fees or commissions for arranging or fixing business deals either while acting as a UK trade envoy or at any other point in his life.’
However, in recent years, ‘Air Miles’ Andy, as he has been nicknamed, has lived like a billionaire, holidaying on luxury yachts and travelling the world by helicopter and private jet.
No doubt he has enjoyed the free hospitality of some of his wealthy friends but in addition to this a total of £7.5million has been spent refurbishing Royal Lodge, his spacious home in Windsor. And in 2014, he and his ex-wife acquired a £13million luxury lodge in the exclusive Swiss ski resort of Verbier. Called Chalet Helora, it has seven bedrooms, living rooms bedecked with furs and antiques, a 650sq ft indoor swimming pool, sauna and sun terrace.
Guests have previously rented it out for £22,000 a week, and neighbouring homes are owned by Sir Richard Branson, the singer James Blunt and a host of skiloving billionaires.
Today, Andrew boasts a collection of expensive wristwatches including several Rolexes and Cartiers, a £150,000 Patek Philippe and a £12,000 Apple Watch. A small fleet of cars includes a new green
Bentley. Quite how he has funded all this has never been clear. At the very least, his involvement in the offshore fund and his links to the mega-rich Rowlands offer yet another possible explanation.
Last night, Andrew faced criticism for his involvement in a firm in a tax haven while he was working as Britain’s trade ambassador. There have been serious concerns over the lack of transparency in the financial service sector in places such as the British Virgin Islands. Earlier this year, the Tax Justice Network pressure group ranked 64 countries based on how much tax avoidance they enabled, taking into account the size of their economies. The British Virgin Islands topped the list.
The proposed fund made no secret of the tax-free profits on offer. The document leaked to The Mail on Sunday says: ‘Income is tax-free so far as the Fund is concerned.’ It added: ‘Money Plus+ Funds will appeal to investors seeking security of capital, low risk and active management of their cash deposits.’ The document makes clear that Blackfish is looking for ‘an established international bank’ to become its partner in managing the fund.
As well as introducing clients, IAM would also act as a ‘co-adviser’ to the fund.
Company records from the British Virgin Islands, obtained by The Mail on Sunday, show that Inverness Asset Management was registered in the tax haven in April 2007.
Its address was listed as a PO Box in ‘Sea Meadow House’ in Road Town, the capital of the BVI. The company was only dissolved in March this year. The leaked document also shows that the Blackfish Capital Money Plus+ Fund was due to be structured in a type of company in the Cayman Islands known as a segregated portfolio company (SPC).
Company records obtained by this newspaper show that five different SPCs were registered between November 2006 and March 2008 in the Cayman Islands with ‘Blackfish Capital’ and ‘Fund’ in their titles.
It is unknown, however, whether any of these included the Blackfish Money Plus+ Fund.
Chris Bryant, a former Foreign Office Minister in Gordon Brown’s government, said the revelation of Andrew’s stake in IAM is more damaging than the disclosure in the 2017 ‘Paradise Papers’ that money from the Queen’s private estate had been invested in a Cayman Islands fund.
‘This is far more significant because it is a senior member of the Royal Family engaged in offshore shenanigans,’ he said. ‘The word that comes to mind is entitlement, really. Because he is a Duke, he can get away with anything.’
The Duke of York declined to provide a comment for publication. Jonathan Rowland declined to comment for legal reasons.