By Marisa Laudadio
2:01pm PST, Feb 18, 2026
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Newly released documents indicate that
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor shared confidential government information from official overseas trips with convicted predator
Jeffrey Epstein — and did so well after the former Duke of York claimed he'd cut ties with the disgraced financier.
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Material seen by the
BBC in documents released by the U.S. Justice Department suggests that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor sent confidential information connected to his work as U.K. trade envoy to Jeffrey Epstein in 2010 and 2011. According to official guidance, people who serve in the role are bound by strict confidentiality rules concerning information learned during their visits abroad. The former Prince Andrew served in the role from 2001 to 2011.
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Emails dated October 7, 2010, indicate that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor shared details of official upcoming trade visits to Singapore, Vietnam, the Chinese city of Shenzhen and Hong Kong with Jeffrey Epstein. Then, after completing his trip, on November 20, 2010, the former Duke of York appears to have forwarded official reports of those visits — which were sent by his then-special assistant Amit Patel — to Epstein just five minutes after receiving them.
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Documents also appear to show that on Christmas Eve 2010, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor emailed Jeffrey Epstein a confidential briefing regarding investment opportunities tied to reconstruction in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Those efforts were overseen by the British armed forces and funded by the U.K. government.
Vince Cable, who served as Britain's secretary of state for business during the time Mountbatten-Windsor was sending this information to Epstein, recently told the BBC he was "unaware of Andrew… sharing information about investment opportunities [in Afghanistan] before, this is the first I've heard of it." Cable has since called for an investigation into the former Duke of York's time as trade envoy, the
BBC reported.
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In another email dated February 9, 2011, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor suggested that Jeffrey Epstein might consider investing in a private equity firm the former Duke of York had visited a week earlier. Queen Elizabeth II's second son — who was stripped of his royal titles in late 2025 by his brother King Charles III amid renewed scrutiny of his ties to the disgraced financier — has not commented on the claims he shared confidential information while trade envoy but has consistently denied any wrongdoing regarding his association with Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on trafficking charges.
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In 2019, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor told the
BBC's Newsnight he'd cut ties with Jeffrey Epstein in person during a trip to New York City in early December 2010, feeling that a face-to-face conversation to end their friendship was the "honorable" thing to do. Months earlier, Epstein completed a 13-month jail sentence after pleading guilty to solicitation charges in Florida in 2008.
