Monday June 5, 2023 – Prince Andrew is facing fresh questions over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein after emails emerged suggesting he ‘lied’ about it in his BBC Newsnight interview.
A message written by the late billionaire paedophile and released as part of a court case in the US shows he was presenting Andrew, 63, as a potential investor in 2011, despite the royal claiming to have ended all contact in 2010.
Epstein’s victims last night called on the prince to speak to the FBI, which he has so far refused to do. It is not known if Andrew – who was seen riding in Windsor today – knew Epstein had mentioned him in the email exchange.
The victims’ representative, US attorney Spencer Kuvin, told the Mirror: ‘It appears that either Epstein was highly overselling his relationship with Prince Andrew or that the duke may not have been entirely truthful about when his friendship ended.’
One victim, who was awarded compensation under the Epstein victims’ compensation program, said: ‘The emails raise serious questions. Why would Jeffrey be lauding him as an investor if he was no longer in contact?’
An email written by Epstein to JP Morgan on August 31, 2011, suggested Andrew as a possible investment partner because ‘he is now allowed to make money’.
It was revealed as part of a lawsuit against the bank by the US Virgin Islands which claims it was ‘complicit in the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein’.
In a counterclaim, JP Morgan accuses the territory’s officials of taking money and favours from Epstein in return for turning a blind eye as he abused women on the island.
Speaking to the BBC’s Emily Maitlis in 2019, Andrew said he cut contact with Epstein after visiting him in New York in December 2010.
Asked ‘Did you see him or speak to him again?’ The duke said: ‘No.’
Epstein served almost 13 months in jail in 2008 after he was convicted of procuring a child for prostitution and sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl.
But Prince Andrew continued his friendship with the offender after he was released.
In 2019 he told the BBC that his relationship with Epstein and the opportunities he had been given were ‘very useful’ and said he didn’t recall the photo where he is seen with his arm around Virginia Roberts – now known as Virginia Giuffre – ‘ever having been taken’.
Jeffrey Epstein took his own life while in jail in 2019.
Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell – who was also a friend of Andrew’s and appears in the background of the photo of him and Ms Giuffre – is serving 20 years in prison for sex trafficking.
It follows reports the royal faces being forced out of his Royal Lodge home by his brother, King Charles.
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