Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor passed a confidential Treasury briefing to a banker friend, according to new emails

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor passed on a confidential Treasury briefing to a banker friend, according to new emails.

He was Britain’s trade envoy in 2010 when he requested an official update on the financial crisis gripping Iceland at the time. When the Treasury sent him one, he forwarded it to his financier friend Jonathan Rowland to read ‘before you make your next move’, says the email seen by The Telegraph.

The former Duke of York is already facing a police probe over claims he leaked confidential data to Jeffrey Epstein when he was the UK’s special representative for trade.

Thames Valley Police detectives are assessing whether to open an investigation. Earlier this week, Buckingham Palace said it stands ‘ready to support’ police in any investigation, in an unprecedented statement in which the King expressed his ‘profound concern’ at mounting allegations against his brother.

Now there is further evidence of Andrew’s apparent willingness to pass on official documents to rich friends.

Mr Rowland was the former chief executive of Banque Havilland, founded by his father David Rowland, to whom the former prince was also close.

In the emails seen by The Telegraph, the former prince tasked his deputy private secretary Amanda Thirsk to write to Michael Ellam, the Treasury’s director general of international finance. At the time, the UK and Iceland were having a diplomatic row over British deposits lost in the 2008 banking crisis.

Ms Thirsk wrote on February 8, 2010: ‘The Duke of York met with the prime minister of Iceland at Davos and would very much like to receive an update note on the latest position between the UK and Iceland on the matter of the deposits and the deposit scheme.’

A week later, a different Treasury official replied with a note, and she forwarded it to Andrew. Two hours later, he passed it to Jonathan Rowland, whose bank had bought assets from a failed Icelandic lender a year earlier.

Andrew told him: ‘I pass this on to you for comment and a suggestion or solution?

‘The essence is that Amanda is getting signals that we should allow the democratic process [to] happen before you make your move. Interested in your opinion? A.’

Banque Havilland was connected to a major investigation by Icelandic authorities at the time.

The email was sent days after Iceland’s office of the special prosecutor raided the offices of Kaupthing Bank, part of which had just been acquired by Banque Havilland after the Icelandic institution collapsed. Many depositors who lost access to their cash were British.

Andrew’s connections to the Rowland family go back years. Guernsey-based Tory donor David Rowland once gave Sarah Ferguson £40,000 to help clear debts. And it was reported in 2022 that leaked documents suggested he had in 2017 paid off a £1.5million bank loan for the Duke. 

Mr Rowland Snr was invited to Balmoral – where he reportedly met the Queen and took tea with the Prince of Wales. Shortly after the £1.5million gift, he enticed Andrew to the launch of a joint venture between one of his banks and a sovereign wealth fund in Abu Dhabi.

There are further documents in the Epstein files which show the close relationship between Andrew and the Rowland family.

In an email sent to Epstein in September 2009, an individual referring to Sarah Ferguson said they ‘will finalise F summary for you next week. Can’t now cause she went to nepal paying for the first class flight with her rowland bank loan’.

Thames Valley Police is still assessing whether to investigate Andrew, after documents in the Epstein files showed he was forwarding on official papers. When he went to visit Jeffrey Epstein in November 2010, he passed on Whitehall reports from his visit to Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam and China within five minutes of receiving them from his office at Buckingham Palace.

Another time, he gave Epstein a briefing on investment opportunities in Afghanistan’s Helmand province.

Mr Rowland and Banque Havilland have been approached for comment.

The Government is now under pressure to release documents from Andrew’s time as trade envoy – as well as internal files on Peter Mandelson which it has already been asked to do. 

It emerged that ministers have blocked the release of some Andrew files on ‘health and safety grounds’.

Author Andrew Lownie, who wrote the recent Andrew biography Entitled, requested a copy of Foreign Office emails relating to trips by the former prince to Kazakhstan in 2008 and Azerbaijan in 2009.

These were refused, in part because it was claimed that disclosure could ‘endanger the physical or mental health, or the safety, of individuals involved in these arrangements’.