On a warm summer evening in 2019, a well-known British entrepreneur sat down with his laptop, crafting a lengthy email. This was before Prince Andrew had to shed his royal titles, becoming simply Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. The businessman had pressing concerns to share, particularly about the potential harm Prince Andrew’s business dealings could inflict on the Royal Family’s image.

Despite acknowledging it as a ‘breach of protocol,’ he bravely decided to directly reach out to the Prince of Wales, ensuring that the late Queen’s legal team was also in the loop.

Almost seven years have passed since I first encountered this correspondence. It was part of a revealing collection of private exchanges between Andrew and his financial collaborators, David and Jonathan Rowland. The revelations were astounding, finally shedding light on a long-standing enigma: the source of Prince Andrew’s wealth.

In an article for The Mail on Sunday that year, I uncovered how the Duke of York’s partnership with the Rowlands was mutually lucrative. Their collaboration was quite ingenious.

Together, the trio engaged with some of the world’s most questionable regimes. While their activities stayed within legal boundaries, the ethical implications for a royal family member were undeniable.

The operation functioned like this: as the UK’s trade envoy, Prince Andrew had access to a wealth of business opportunities. He occasionally tipped off the Rowlands, providing them with a strategic advantage over competitors.

Meanwhile, they travelled the world in pursuit of their own business leads.

Andrew’s other job was to open doors for them, giving them unique access to foreign royals, heads of state and chairmen of multi-nationals.

In his capacity as UK trade envoy, Prince Andrew would hear about all sorts of opportunities 

For years, it worked a treat. Travelling by private jet and sauntering in and out of ambassadorial residences and presidential palaces, the Prince and his banker friends talked of seven- and eight-figure sums as if they were pennies.

Some of the messages they exchanged between 2008 and 2012 were jaw-dropping.

With offices in London, Luxembourg, Monaco and Moscow, these ‘Very Private’ bankers (as they once described themselves in an email) were happy to do business with all sorts, boasting of their ‘very strong links and in some cases JVs [Joint Ventures]’ with hostile states including Russia, Belarus and China.

The Chinese venture capitalist who organised their trip to Pyongyang to cultivate ‘relatives of Kim’ (as he put it) was also targeting ‘former and current heads of state’ in various Africa hell holes, including Guinea Bissau, the Central African Republic and South Sudan. Edgy stuff.

I was stunned. What on earth was the Queen Elizabeth’s favourite son doing?

Not long after the Rowlands’ private bank was established, it was raided by 40 armed police.

The Rowlands were furious, privately complaining that they were being treated like ‘Mafia Drug Warlords’.

It was a terrible look, yet Andrew stuck with them, just as he and his wife Sarah Ferguson continued to be friends with Jeffrey Epstein long after he was exposed as a paedophile.

No wonder someone thought that the future King should know. The businessman who tipped off Prince Charles in 2019 even volunteered to help his solicitors investigate.

Could the catastrophe that is now engulfing the monarchy have been averted? By then Andrew had long ceased to be our trade envoy.

What if Andrew then started to live a life of exemplary public service, like his mother the Queen?

In truth, by 2019, it was too late. There were far too many skeletons in Andrew’s closet for Prince Charles or anyone else to magic them away.

We don’t know how the Palace reacted to this email, but if they took it seriously they will at least have been prepared for the crisis that has come their way.