ANDY’S SHOCKING MILE-HIGH FREEBIES!
Prince gets wings clipped for using mogul’s private jet
SCANDAL-TARRED Prince Andrew is being investigated for double dealing by secretly promoting the business of a taxdodging banker pal while he was working as Britain’s roving overseas envoy.
Shocking revelations show the financier, David “Spotty” Rowland, gave Randy Andy the use of his $53 million private jet at least five times while the prince worked as a royal ambassador until 2011, as well as in the years after.
Who paid the $10,000per-hour cost of the luxury plane, which Andrew took because he was reportedly unhappy with older craft supplied by Britain’s Royal
Air Force, is still unknown, but it’s unlikely much moolah, if any, departed from the prince’s pockets.
In October, the craft zoomed Andrew to the United Arab Emirates, where he was seen cutting a ribbon for the opening of Rowland’s new bank a day later.
The flights were part of a hush-hush 2010 pact with Global Express owner Rowland to use his 14-seat jet, complete with tight security, say sources.
Two of the flights were to Luxembourg in 2009 and Monaco in 2012, where the prince opened accounts in Rowland’s tax haven banks.
And it seems Rowland wasn’t offering transportation out of the goodness of his heart — three months before Andrew quit as trade envoy, Rowland’s son and exec Jonathan asked the prince if he could use Buckingham Palace to wow Chinese banking clients. “We are in Shanghai and just met with Bank Communications Chairman,” he wrote. “We are trying to sign a deal to be their partner in Europe. Would it be OK to invite them to meet you at BP next time they come to the U.K.?”
Andrew replied, “YES,” but suggested the more secretive Royal Lodge in Windsor Park, writing: “Let me check and get back as RL might be better and more private.”
Andrew was still hanging out with financier Jeffrey Epstein, who’d been convicted for sexual offenses against underage girls in 2008. Epstein was murdered in a New York City jail last August while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
The palace insists no taxpayer funds were used for trips on Rowland’s plane. But a source notes: “Andrew’s use of the top-of-the-range jet is bound to raise questions over whether the duke was left indebted to the Rowlands.”