Emails on Andrew's finances sent to Palace in 2020

Buckingham Palace received an archive of 30,000 emails in 2020 that contained details of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's financial dealings while he served as a trade envoy.

The emails were handed to the Lord Chamberlain, the senior official in the Royal Household, in May 2020. They had been taken from the account of Jonathan Rowland, a business contact of Mountbatten-Windsor.

High Court documents from April 2021 and June 2022 confirm that a copy of the archive reached the Palace. The emails cover the period up to June 2013 and include messages from 2010 in which Mountbatten-Windsor requested a confidential Treasury briefing on Iceland's banks and then forwarded it to Rowland.

The archive was later shared with authorities in Monaco and Luxembourg by retail entrepreneur Kevin Stanford, who obtained it after a separate business dispute. Stanford also passed some of the messages to a journalist.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment, citing an ongoing police investigation. Thames Valley Police arrested Mountbatten-Windsor last week on suspicion of misconduct in public office and has appealed for further information.

The emails relate to Mountbatten-Windsor's dealings with the Rowland family and Banque Havilland, which later faced sanctions from UK and EU regulators. Court filings show the messages were delivered to the Palace during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

Mountbatten-Windsor has denied any wrongdoing in his associations with Jeffrey Epstein and has said he gained nothing personally from his role as trade envoy. King Charles later stripped him of his titles.

Author Andrew Lownie has called for a parliamentary inquiry into Mountbatten-Windsor's time as trade envoy, saying Freedom of Information requests continue to be refused.