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Aides to the former Prince Andrew took detailed financial advice from the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on a lucrative proposal for the royal to be paid for introducing clients such as sovereign wealth funds to US investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald.
The advice was given in 2013 when King Charles’s younger brother — now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor — was still a working member of the royal family. As a royal, he would have been entitled to receive payments from the UK taxpayer-funded sovereign grant.
The envisaged income for Mountbatten-Windsor under the agreement — which was never signed — is unclear. But Urramoor — his company, called UML in the documents — was to receive a £1mn loan as soon as he signed the deal, suggesting payments worth millions of pounds were expected annually over the deal’s initial 10-year life.
The discussions about the potential deal featured in the millions of files released by the US Department of Justice over the weekend, as a result of its investigation into Epstein, who died in his New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges that he had sex-trafficked underage girls.
Cantor Fitzgerald stressed on Wednesday that the deal had not gone ahead. “Cantor Fitzgerald has never had any business dealings with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor,” the company said.
The discussions recorded in the DoJ data release include some over a proposed “HL loan” — an apparent reference to Howard Lutnick, then chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald and now US commerce secretary.
In an email on August 9, 2013, Epstein warned David Stern, an aide to Mountbatten-Windsor, that Cantor Fitzgerald’s gaming operations in Las Vegas would oblige Lutnick to disclose the deal to gambling regulators. Cantor has since sold its gaming business.
“He will have to disclose to the Las Vegas commission this arrangement and you will have holy hell to pay,” Epstein wrote.
The exchanges took place nearly three years after the December 2010 meeting in New York at which Mountbatten-Windsor has insisted he broke off all contact with Epstein.
The draft contract cited the extensive contacts of Mountbatten-Windsor, who stepped down in July 2011 as an official UK trade and investment representative, as a rationale for the deal.
“UML has relationships with several organisations and individuals including asset management firms, sovereign wealth funds, institutional investors, and high-net-worth individuals or family offices that may benefit from services provided by affiliates of Cantor,” the draft contract read.
Disclosure of the previously unpublicised proposed deal is the latest of several revelations in the files about Mountbatten-Windsor, who was stripped of his title of “prince” by the king in October following controversy over his relationship with Epstein.
Previous releases of files show he sought ways to circumvent restrictions on his business activity and discussed with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s associate, prospects to meet girls during an official royal visit to Peru.
In early September 2013, Stern forwarded to Epstein a “term sheet” — an outline contract — that had been sent to the then-prince. Stern commented that it was “madness”, apparently because it was insufficiently generous. Epstein replied, calling the terms “crazy”.
Epstein subsequently suggested Mountbatten-Windsor’s team come up with a counter offer, including an even split for Cantor Fitzgerald and Urramoor in any referral fee. That arrangement is reflected in the draft contract.
Documents posted among the Epstein files show Mountbatten-Windsor — who was also forced to give up the lease on his 30-room Royal Lodge by the King last year — felt constrained from entering into some financial arrangements because of royal convention.
But he told Epstein in one email that there were “no problems” in his making investments via trusts.
The UK’s corporate registry, Companies House, lists Mountbatten-Windsor — under the name HRH Andrew Inverness — as holding significant control over the company via control of a trust. Urramoor was dissolved last year.
A public relations company working for Mountbatten-Windsor did not reply to a request for comment.
Buckingham Palace did not reply to questions about whether it knew about Mountbatten-Windsor’s involvement in discussions about a potential deal.