Charles was warned

LONDON – King Charles was warned as long ago as 2019 that the Royal Family’s name was being ‘abused’ by Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s business associations, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

In a bombshell email, a whistle-blower told the Palace that the former Duke had secret financial links to controversial millionaire financier David Rowland, who was abusing his royal links.

Messages seen by this newspaper also appear to show that Andrew – who was sensationally arrested on Thursday over suspicions of misconduct in public office – allowed Rowland to effectively join in with his official duties. The cache of emails threaten to draw Charles further into the crisis, triggered by Andrew’s links to Jeffrey Epstein, and allegations he passed potentially confidential and sensitive documents to the convicted paedophile.

Andrew once told Epstein that Rowland was his ‘trusted money man’. The banker and his son Jonathan joined Andrew on trips he made in his official capacity as a taxpayer-funded trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, visiting places such as China and former Soviet States.

Over a period of several years, Andrew repeatedly alerted Rowland to business opportunities arising from his work.

Rowland once gave Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson £40 000 to help clear debts and, in 2017, paid off a £1.5 million loan for Andrew.

In August 2019, a whistle-blower who had detailed knowledge of Andrew’s business dealings with Rowland sent an email to Charles, then Prince of Wales, via the royal lawyers Farrer & Co, warning of ‘David Rowland’s abuse of the Royal Family’.