Prince Andrew, son of Elizabeth II, removed from British public life due to a sexual abuse scandal, was implicated on Friday in a fraud lawsuit against a Turkish businessman from whom he received “significant sums” of money.
The 62-year-old Duke of York and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson were named in a lawsuit before the High Court in London between Nebahat Isbilen, a septuagenarian Turkish woman, and Selman Turk, a London-based Turkish businessman.
The woman claims to have trusted the banker to get her fortune out of Turkey after her husband was jailed there for “political reasons”.
According to the documents presented in the case, the prince and his ex-wife received “significant sums” from this former banker, accused of diverting some 40 million pounds (52 million dollars, 47 million euros) from Isbilen.
“The money was used for purposes unrelated to Mrs. Isbilen, such as significant sums paid to Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson,” according to the plaintiff’s lawyers.
According to the British newspaper Daily Telegraph, the prince received more than a million pounds.
These payments would include a £750,000 “gift” made by Isbilen on Turk’s advice, in exchange for which the woman believed she would be helped to obtain a British passport and flee Turkey.
The queen’s son has since returned the money, but has “refused” to answer questions from Isbilen’s lawyer, according to the paper.
The complainant further states that this payment occurred in November 2019, a few days after the businessman to whom she had entrusted her fortune won a prize in a business contest organized by the prince.
Away from public life, Andrés appeared on Tuesday at Westminster Abbey on his mother’s arm, for the first time since he reached an out-of-court settlement with the American Virginia Giuffre, who accused him of sexual assault when she was a minor and a victim of late American pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
As a result of these accusations, Andrés was deprived in January of his military honors and can no longer use his title of Royal Highness.
