Prince Andrew’s agency linked to controversial PPE millionaire | EUROtoday

Get real time updates directly on you device, subscribe now.

Ben King

Business reporter

Getty Images Michelle Mone pictured standing under an umbrella next to her husband, Doug Barrowman, attending the Cheltenham Festival in 2019. Both are smiling. She wears a white jacket and red hat with feathers, he wears a green coat and checked scarfGetty Images

Doug Barrowman pictured along with his spouse Michelle Mone

One of Prince Andrew’s prized enterprise belongings was administered for 2 years by an organization managed by the controversial millionaire Doug Barrowman, the BBC can reveal.

After the prince’s disastrous Newsnight interview in 2019, authorized possession of his Dragon’s Den-style start-up competitors, Pitch@Palace Global, was transferred to a Barrowman-linked agency, Knox House Trustees (UK).

Barrowman and his spouse, lingerie boss Baroness Michelle Mone, hit the headlines when she admitted they’d lied about their hyperlinks to an organization that received massive authorities contracts in the course of the Covid pandemic after she beneficial it to ministers.

A lawyer for Mr Barrowman mentioned he “at no time… had any business or personal involvement with the duke”.

Pitch@Palace Global remained the prince’s firm, beneath his management. But according to longstanding royal follow, it was owned beneath the names of different folks or firms, appearing on his behalf as so-called “nominees”.

Documents filed at Companies House present that from 2021, the nominee proprietor was Knox House Trustees (UK), which was managed and in the end owned by Mr Barrowman till 2023.

Controversial associates

Prince Andrew’s funds have been beneath intense scrutiny, with questions on how he can afford to dwell in his Royal Lodge mansion in Windsor after he was lower off financially by his brother, King Charles.

The prince’s selection of enterprise associates has lengthy been controversial. In December, he mentioned he “ceased all contact” with Yang Tengbo, who led the Chinese arm of Pitch@Palace, after receiving recommendation from the UK authorities which alleged that he was a spy.

Mr Yang has denied being a spy or doing something illegal.

Mr Barrowman has attracted loads of controversy too. In 2017, HMRC started an investigation into certainly one of his firms, AML Tax (UK), which it mentioned “aggressively promoted” tax avoidance schemes. It was fined £150,000 in 2022.

In January that yr, the Guardian newspaper first reported hyperlinks between Mr Barrowman, Baroness Mone and PPE Medpro. The pair denied involvement till December 2023, when she admitted in a BBC interview that they’d lied about their hyperlinks with the corporate.

The National Crime Agency is now investigating suspected prison offences on the agency. Mr Barrowman and Baroness Mone each deny any wrongdoing.

Author Andrew Lownie, who’s writing a biography of the prince, mentioned: “Andrew has a long history of associating with dubious business figures and disguising his business activities behind nominee and offshore accounts. There really needs to be a full investigation into the duke’s financial activities.”

Who owns Pitch@Palace?

Pitch@Palace was a start-up competitors, based in 2014, the place entrepreneurs would pitch their concepts to attainable traders within the hope of profitable their backing. It had two components:

  • a UK-based model, arrange as a group curiosity firm, which can’t pay earnings to shareholders
  • a world arm, Pitch@Palace Global Ltd, which held competitions in locations reminiscent of Australia, Bahrain and China, and was arrange as a for-profit UK firm

Both arms of Pitch@Palace suspended operations following the Newsnight interview in 2019 in regards to the prince’s hyperlinks to the late intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein, which led to Andrew stepping down as a working royal.

Nonetheless, the worldwide operation has emerged as a attainable means for the duke to fund his way of life. In a court docket witness assertion from 2023, Mr Yang wrote that the duke had wanted cash “and saw the relationships with China through Pitch as one possible source of funding”.

Earlier this yr a Dutch firm mentioned it was in talks to purchase it, saying it noticed “immense value” within the community, regardless that it had suspended operations.

However, Prince Andrew has by no means held the corporate in his personal title.

Founded in 2017, Pitch@Palace Global Ltd was initially held within the title of Amanda Thirsk, the prince’s non-public secretary, in an association typically utilized by the Royal Family.

But early in 2021, the authorized possession was transferred to Knox House Trustees (UK) Limited.

This firm had been arrange the yr earlier than, and Mr Barrowman was named as having “significant influence and control” over it.

Corporate filings within the Isle of Man present Knox House Trustees (UK) was in the end owned by Knox Limited, whose sole shareholder is Mr Barrowman.

Getty Images The Duke of York peers over horn-rim glasses while standing at the podium at a Pitch@Palace event. He wears a dark suit, blue tie and white shirt with a poppy in his lapel. The bottom of a royal insignia is visible at the top of the blue backgroundGetty Images

The Duke of York presents a Pitch@Palace occasion in 2015

Investigations into Barrowman’s firms

In 2023, possession of Knox House Trustees (UK) Ltd – which nonetheless owned Pitch@Palace Global – was transferred to Arthur Lancaster, an accountant who has a longstanding working relationship with each the prince and Mr Barrowman. This stays the scenario right this moment.

The identical yr Mr Lancaster took over as the only director and shareholder of PPE Medpro. He was additionally a director of most of the firms concerned within the AML tax avoidance case.

The decide in that case referred to as him “evasive” and mentioned he had “real concerns as to the reliability of Mr Lancaster’s evidence”, which contained “significant inconsistencies”.

After the case, his lawyer wrote to the court docket arguing that the conclusions have been “unnecessarily harsh”, that Mr Lancaster had been a “diligent and truthful witness”, and that his efforts to offer data had been hampered by the Covid pandemic.

For many years the Royal Family has held investments by nominees, and nonetheless does. In the previous this has served to maintain particulars of their holdings non-public, although not on this case. Prince Andrew’s involvement in Pitch@Palace Global is well-known, and he’s listed as having “significant influence or control” over the corporate on Companies House.

Mr Barrowman’s lawyer mentioned in a press release: “Mr Lancaster was a director of KHT (UK) Ltd which provided company administration services to a number of external companies, including Pitch@Palace, a company wholly owned by the duke. Mr Lancaster acted for the duke in a personal capacity at all times and has been an associate of the duke for many years.”

Mr Lancaster declined to remark. Prince Andrew didn’t reply to requests for remark.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9vep0p877wo