Prince Andrew, Queen’s son was allegedly to receive commission from a £375m deal in oil-rich Kazakhstan while acting as special trade envoy for Britain
‘In recent times ‘graft’ by highly placed persons has been all the rage. First former PM Tony Blair, now this PR blunder in trying to cover royal ‘greasing’ in Kazakhstan, by Prince Andrew
….the lesson to be learnt here is that someone is always watching and individuals occupying high posts with expectations of probity need to control that basic instinct to strike material gains at the expense of public trust.
What the The Duke of York has lost in public confidence can not be repaired with even £40m of PR or stonewalling’
Prince Andrew ‘set for £4m windfall from a deal, greasing the wheels in Kazakhstan’
He allegedly, was set to collect the commission from that £385m deal he brokered while acting as special trade envoy for Britain
The Duke of York called, emailed [Kazakh oligarch] Kenges Rakishev seeking for assistance two firms – Aras Capital, Zurich and EYDAP, Greece
Conflict of interest cited in performing his former role as trade envoy while seeking personal gain from that role
Prince Andrew is reported to have facilitated a venture in Kazakhstan on behalf of Greek and Swiss clients He was was to be offered a commission fee of 1 per cent or around £3.83 million from the deal
Kazakhstan was part of the USSR
For his trouble, Prince Andrew was to be offered a commission fee of 1 per cent or around £3.83 million, a source of the water firm has revealed.
In the event, the deal collapsed when in late 2011, Kazakh police opened fire on a group of striking oil workers in the city of Zhanaozen, killing 14. Fearing they would be caught up in the turmoil, EYDAP pulled out.
Kazakh oligarch Kenges Rakishev
His spokesperson David Pogson initially denied the Prince had done any work for the Swiss and Greek firms. However, a newspaper provided the palace with emails Andrew had personally sent to Mr Rakishev on behalf of both EYDAP and Aras on April 14, 2011.
The Palace then suggested the emails were a forgery then tried to halt publication of the story on privacy grounds.
In 2007 Mr Rakishev brokered the mysterious sale of Prince Andrew’s former marital home in Berkshire. After languishing unsold for five years, the property was bought for £15 million, £3 million over the asking price, by an oligarch called Timur Kulibayev, the son-in-law of Kazakhstan’s president Nursultan Nazarbayev. Prince Andrew became UK special representative for international trade and investment in October 2001, but He announced his resignation in July 2011 following criticism of his friendship with controversial figures including convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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