A clip and an edited transcript from a recent episode of The Lownie Report podcast where I discuss Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie and their possible involvement with their parents many business dealings, and why it’s vital that the King and the Prince of Wales get a handle on this situation before we see the same mistakes playing out again.
How entwined do we think the princesses are with Andrew and Fergie’s business dealings?
Well, we know they were pretty firmly entwined. I mean, the daughters were taken on all the trade trips at extra cost to the public purse. They’ve built up a very useful contacts book. That’s contacts what they’re using in their business careers, that both clients in fact employed to deal with client relations. We’ve got plenty of occasions where they’ve been out promoting their father’s businesses abroad, particularly in the Middle East, in the Far East.
So both Pitch@Palace, a rather abortive mission with a Dutch company to basically monetise the addresses he got through Pitch@Palace, which was, after all, charity. And I mean, even recently Beatrice has been out promoting a Saudi bank and certainly some of the charitable what they’re doing in the Middle East does seem to be laundering operations of some pretty dubious characters there.
And knowing the Yorks, they don’t do anything for free. And of course, then we have the court cases, and the famous one is the case of 2022, in which money was being paid to one of the daughters, money which they couldn’t explain what it was for, from a man called Selman Turk, who had been taken to court for basically embezzlement.
And this money that emerged came from something called Alphabet Capital and a man called Adrian Gleave. So all this is very murky that the Yorks refused to comment on it, to explain this money, and it was being channelled through the daughter’s bank account. So one wonders how many other funds have been channelled through their bank accounts. I think they were asked if they would have their material audited by William.
And they refused to do so, which doesn’t send out, after all, very encouraging signs. So, I mean, I do think that there is a case for HMRC to look at the tax affairs of the York family. It doesn’t seem that they perhaps have been completely open about their business arrangements.
And you know, this is on top of, I think, both the Duke and his ex-wife being material witnesses to Epstein’s activities and should be called to give account to both the lawyers and law enforcement in the States.
And the fact that I think there is a case against both Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and his former wife for misconduct in public affairs, abuse of charity law, etc.
You say that William has said that he wants his advisers to look at the princess’s finances and they’ve refused. What can William do to make them do that? Do you think there might be an ultimatum? Do you think William might be waiting until he’s king before he can take serious steps?
Well, I think it is very difficult because, I mean, this is clearly a big tug of war going on between William and his father. His father is keen to show that he’s boss. But clearly they have, I think, different views about how to treat the York family. I think clearly when William comes to the throne, I think there’s a very strong chance that all these titles, apart from his own children, will be got rid of.
Anyone who isn’t a working royal won’t have grace and favour homes, for example. Or if they do have them, will have to be paying market rent. I mean, I think it’s outrageous still that Beatrice and Eugenie have the use of that at St James’s Palace and Kensington Palace and flats that were done at the public expense. When they have rich husbands, they have other homes and they should be paying a market rent if they at least have those access to them.
It is difficult for anything to be done if they refuse to cooperate. It’s just the optics don’t look good. And those optics, you know, I don’t think have been corrected by the behaviour so far. There’s still many, many questions about the royal finances. And I think until they’re much more open about those finances, all the members of the royal family, till we have the Royal Register, until we have the exemptions under FOIA removed, until we actually can see how they parcel money through royal wills, until there’s much more parliamentary scrutiny.
I think there will be big questions about how they’re basically abusing their royal position for personal gain.
