Prince Andrew’s £1.5m Loan Reportedly Paid Off by Multimillionaire Tory Party Donor
09:16 GMT 17.11.2021 (Updated: 15:16 GMT 28.05.2023)
© AFP 2023 / JOHN THYS
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Just how the Duke of York has been able to fund his lavish lifestyle while receiving the £249,000 annual allowance to fund his Buckingham Palace office has puzzled many. The Queen’s second son, who stopped performing royal duties after fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein sex scandal, also has a small pension from his time serving with the Royal Navy.
Prince Andrew took out a £1.5m ($2 million) personal loan from Banque Havilland in 2017 that was paid off 11 days later by companies linked to multimillionaire David Rowland, one of the UK Conservative Party’s biggest donors, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The 61-year-old prince, ninth in line to the throne, purportedly received the transfer from Rowland to his London account at Banque Havilland SA in December 2017, according to two sources and bank documents cited by the publication.
The loan from the Luxembourg-based private bank that had been due in March 2018 was repaid early using funds transferred to the Duke of York from a Guernsey-registered company Albany Reserves Ltd. controlled by the Rowland family, account belonging to claim sources. David Rowland is listed as director of Albany Reserves, according to cited company filings.
The November 2017 Banque Havilland loan, with an 8% interest rate, replaced a previously existing 1.25-million-pound borrowing facility that had been extended 10 times since 2015, states the report. Despite an internal credit application ostensibly showing a warning from Banque Havilland staff that the loan was “not in line with the risk appetite of the bank”, Prince Andrew was allowed to borrow the money as it could facilitate “further business potential with the royal family,” alleges the report.
The additional 250,000 pounds borrowed by the royal was earmarked as intended for “general working capital and living expenses”.
“While the (increased) loan is unsecured and granted solely against the credibility of the applicant, both his position and that his mother is the sovereign monarch of the United Kingdom should provide access to funds for repayment if need be,” a note on the same document stated.
According to the report, the Albany Reserves account used to rout money to the prince was one of an estimated 70 that the Rowland family opened at Banque Havilland. The latter is said to be owned by a conglomerate of offshore companies controlled by David Rowland’s family.
According to the report, when Prince Andrew received the 2017 loan, Banque Havilland was under investigation by the Luxembourg regulator for potential money-laundering violations. Eventually, the bank was fined 4 million euros in 2018 for failing to install safeguards against money laundering. Local prosecutors subsequently opened a criminal probe.
Friendship ‘Worth Millions’
The Duke of York and the multimillionaire property tycoon have had a close relationship for years. Both David Rowland and his son, Jonathan, are said to have often pitched themselves as investment advisers to the royal family, when they were not in the presence of the Duke of York.
Prince Andrew, 61, is reported to have taken a loan of £1.5m from businessman David Rowland
— Space-reporter-news (@Spacereportern1) November 17, 2021
Mr Rowland, 76, is a Tory party donor who owns Banque Havilland, a Luxembourg-based private bank pic.twitter.com/vrsY4UuhkI
The estimated net worth of David Rowland, the son of a London scrap-metal dealer, is at least $42.2 million dollars as of 3 February 2021. David Rowland made headlines by resigning as Tory treasurer even before starting the job in 2010, when David Cameron was Prime Minister, after stories emerged suggesting he had previously been a tax exile in Guernsey after making his first million in property dealing by the age of 23. Rowland had returned from Guernsey in 2009 to donate almost £3m to the Tories in the run-up to the general election, making him the party's major donor.
Британский принц Эндрю и его дочери, принцесса Евгения (слева) и Беатрис в Лондоне
© AP Photo / Gero Breloer
The royal was invited as a guest of honour at the official opening of Banque Havilland, established after Kaupthing Bank Luxembourg, affected by the global liquidity squeeze, was divided into two new entities in 2009. It was one of these arms that formed the basis for the new bank, with Prince Andrew reportedly helping it pitch services to potential clients, according to Bloomberg. In 2011 it was claimed Rowland had helped to pay off some of the debts of Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York and former wife of the prince.
Sarah Ferguson arrives for the wedding ceremony of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle in Windsor, near London, England, Saturday, May 19, 2018
© AP Photo / Gareth Fuller
In the wake of the report, a spokesperson for the Duke of York is cited as commenting that the prince “is entitled to a degree of privacy in conducting his entirely legitimate, personal financial affairs, on which all appropriate accounting measures are undertaken and all taxes duly paid.” There has not been any comment from either Banque Havilland or David Rowland.
Embattled Prince
The current report has raised fresh questions regarding the sources of Prince Andrew’s lavish lifestyle. When the aforementioned loan was taken, the prince was still performing his royal duties. His publicly known income was £249,000 annually received as an allowance to fund his Buckingham Palace office and paid by the Queen from the private income she received from the Duchy of Lancaster estate. This was augmented by his pension of around 20,000 pounds from his time serving with the Royal Navy.
Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, and Ghislaine Maxwell. This photo was included in an affidavit in which Giuffre alleged that she was directed to have sex with Andrew
© Photo : Florida Southern District Court
However, the prince was forced to step away from all royal duties after his “car crash” BBC interview in November 2019, where he attempted to dismiss sex abuse allegations against him while defending his friendship with the late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Disgraced tycoon Epstein died in a New York jail cell in 2019 after being charged with multiple child sex offences. His death was officially ruled a suicide.
Prince Andrew is currently facing a civil lawsuit filed by an alleged Epstein victim who claims that she was forced into intimate relations with the royal on three occasions when she was still a minor. The prince has vehemently denied all allegations.
