EXPOSED: Andrew’s messages about £100,000 payment from tycoon

Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie have been dragged further into the scandal engulfing their father after The Mail on Sunday discovered he pushed for them to receive £100,000 in secret payments from a controversial billionaire he was helping while trade envoy.

The newspaper has previously exposed how Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor promoted the business interests of his financier friend David Rowland and his son Jonathan while on globetrotting taxpayer-funded trade missions.

Now, our investigations have uncovered an email revealing how Andrew discussed payments of £50,000 to each of his daughters, which could have been used to fund their lavish lifestyles. Andrew was apparently due to receive £300,000.

Last night, MPs demanded to know whether the payments were made in return for Andrew’s help in pushing the Rowlands’ commercial ventures.

The extraordinary revelation plunges Beatrice and Eugenie further into the controversy over their father’s alleged abuse of his trade envoy position and comes amid mounting questions over how the princesses afforded their jet-set lifestyle in their 20s.

Beatrice is said to have enjoyed 17 holidays in 2015 while earning a salary of £19,500 as an ‘international production analyst’ at Sony Pictures. Sources close to the princesses said they had no recollection of the alleged payments. They are said to have requested their historic banking records.

David Rowland, whose nickname is ‘Spotty’, amassed a £730million property and investment fortune and became a close friend and business associate of the then Duke of York, who was trade envoy from 2001 to 2011.

A tax exile for more than 30 years, Mr Rowland returned to the UK before the 2010 General Election so he could pump £2.7million into the Tories’ campaign.

He attended Princess Eugenie’s wedding to Jack Brooksbank at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle in 2018 and was pictured in the front row of the congregation alongside supermodel Kate Moss. The following year the MoS revealed how his son Jonathan, now 50, had accompanied Andrew on official trade missions, during which he plugged Banque Havilland, his family’s bank.

We also showed how Andrew and David Rowland jointly owned a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, a secretive Caribbean tax haven, that appears to have been used to lure the then prince’s wealthy contacts to invest in a tax-free offshore fund.

Now new messages detail how Andrew discussed with Jonathan Rowland, then chief executive of Banque Havilland, the apparent transfer of money to him and his two daughters in June 2011.

They suggest that Andrew was expecting to receive a payment of £300,000 from David Rowland, of which Beatrice and Eugenie would each receive £50,000.

They would then apparently each invest half of their sum in Jellybook, an investment firm Jonathan Rowland had just launched, which was focused on bankrolling social media companies.

The leaked messages suggest Andrew was first due to receive £50,000, which he would apparently invest in Jellybook.

He was then expecting to be paid the remaining £150,000, plus an additional £100,000, to an account with the private bank Drummonds, the messages suggest.

‘I have explained to Amanda [Thirsk, Andrew’s aide] what was intended. That is 50 [thousand] each to the girls. 25 for Jellybook each. 50 for me. The remainder of the £300, £150 plus an additional £100k to be transferred to Drummonds. All this to be done once receipt of the £300 happens.’

The messages show Jonathan Rowland clarifying the proposed arrangement with Andrew.

He wrote: ‘Just so I am clear. You have Euro 650k (£575k) in the Bank. 50k each to the girls. Jelly I am clear on although the girls accounts might not be in place so you can do £100k and we work it out later.’

Detailing the split of funds again, Andrew suggested the source of the money was due to be David.

‘…if DJR [David Rowland] puts £300k in then £150 is used [for] the girls and Jelly. The £150 remaining and an additional £100k to D [Drummonds] thereafter.’

It is unclear whether the payments were ever made.

Last night, Labour MP Karl Turner said: ‘This latest revelation is worrying. It is known that Mountbatten-Windsor had an association with the Rowlands and this friendship existed at the time when he was a trade envoy for the UK.

‘Questions are bound to be asked if that association helped to further enrich his kids. We must surely see an inquiry into whether the payments for the princesses were made in return for the disgraced former prince’s help in pushing the Rowlands’ commercial interests.’

Shadow business minister Harriet Baldwin added: ‘We must get to the bottom of these allegations at once. If true, this would be a clear example of him being unable to distinguish between private affairs and his public role.’

Royal author Andrew Lownie said: ‘This raises serious questions for the two princesses. Did they receive this money and was the source David Rowland?

‘If so, was it because their father had pushed Rowland’s business interests and therefore abused his position as trade envoy?

‘It is time for the princesses and their father to come clean.’

Documents seen by the MoS suggest Andrew was known as ‘Client X’ at Banque Havilland and gave Jonathan Rowland ‘authority to give instructions on his account’.

In one message, Andrew reprimanded Jonathan for involving Amanda Thirsk in his ‘private financial arrangements’.

‘More than slightly annoyed this morning to find an email from Amanda asking me to confirm my private financial arrangements. I don’t want or need my office to know what I’m doing with my family or necessarily my investments.

‘Where is the issue that we need to resolve to prevent this happening again?’

Chastened, Rowland responded: ‘Apologies for this and I will make sure it doesn’t happen again.’

The revelations will throw a spotlight on the degree to which the two princesses have also been tarnished by their father’s alleged improprieties.

The Daily Mail reported in November that Prince William had urged his cousins to allow an ‘ethics’ check on their finances and investments while King Charles had offered the services of one of his senior advisers. The offers of help – and scrutiny – were said to have been politely turned down.

The futures of Beatrice, 37, and Eugenie, 35, have been cast into doubt after their parents’ dramatic downfall. They feature more than 300 times in Epstein Files released by the US Department of Justice and have recently been keeping a low profile.

The Rowlands declined to comment. Andrew did not respond to a request to comment.