Buckingham Palace was given an archive of roughly 30,000 emails in 2020 that court papers say included material showing Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor sharing confidential government information while acting as a trade envoy.
High Court judgments from 2021 and 2022 set out the pathway of the files. They say a copy of the archive was provided to the Lord Chamberlain in May 2020, and an email dated 10 July 2020 records that the emails had been “delivered to Buckingham Palace.” The archive contains messages up to June 2013, though its full contents are not publicly known.
Some of the material has already been published. The Telegraph reported emails in which Andrew requested a confidential Treasury briefing in 2010 about problems in Iceland’s banking system and then passed the briefing on to a personal business contact, Jonathan Rowland. One message reportedly urged Rowland to act “before you make your move.” Those messages are said to have been taken from Rowland’s account and later formed part of the archive.
Court documents say the emails were taken after a dispute between Rowland and a business colleague, then obtained by retail entrepreneur Kevin Stanford. Stanford is said to have offered the archive to authorities in Monaco and Luxembourg and to have shared copies with several people, including a journalist and the Lord Chamberlain.
The emails are of wider interest because they touch on Andrew’s financial dealings with the Rowlands and links to Banque Havilland, the Luxembourg arm of the failed Icelandic bank Kaupthing. Regulators later sanctioned parts of that business, and other leaked material such as the US “Epstein files” has portrayed Andrew promoting Rowland-linked ventures and giving personal assurances for David Rowland.
The archive was handed to Palace officials during the final years of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign. Andrew had stood down as a working royal after his 2019 BBC Newsnight interview. Under King Charles, further measures were taken, including removing some of his titles; following Andrew’s arrest this year a statement from the King said: “The law must take its course.”
Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the email archive, citing an ongoing police inquiry. Thames Valley Police, which has appealed for public assistance since Andrew’s arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office, said it could not comment on specific material but encouraged anyone with relevant information to come forward. A government spokesperson said ministers are fully cooperating with Thames Valley Police and noted recent publication of documents about the creation of the trade envoy role and Andrew’s appointment in 2001.
Calls are growing for greater scrutiny. York Central MP Rachael Maskell has urged a public review of the Royal Household’s accountability, proposing a joint committee of both Houses of Parliament. Biographer Andrew Lownie has pushed for a parliamentary inquiry into Andrew’s time as a trade envoy and said Freedom of Information requests on related matters have often been refused. Former royal press secretary Ailsa Anderson said she could not judge how many messages referred to Andrew but described the published excerpts as damaging and insisted the police investigation should proceed.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has denied wrongdoing in his association with Jeffrey Epstein and denied deriving personal benefit from his trade envoy role. The BBC says Andrew, Jonathan Rowland and Kevin Stanford were approached for comment.
