Buckingham Palace was handed an archive of more than 30,000 emails in May 2020 that appear to show the Duke of York shared confidential information while serving as a government trade envoy, the BBC has reported. The cache was sent to the lord chamberlain, the most senior officer in the royal household, according to court documents seen by the broadcaster.
The emails reportedly came from the account of British businessman Jonathan Rowland, an associate of the Duke, and were taken during a dispute with an unnamed colleague. Their full contents are unknown, but they are understood to contain correspondence dating up to June 2013. The BBC said the emails were later obtained by Kevin Stanford, former majority owner of the fashion chain All Saints, who was involved in a separate dispute over investments linked to Rowland's father, David.
The Duke, who was arrested in February on suspicion of misconduct in a public office amid allegations he passed sensitive government information to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, has faced renewed scrutiny. The palace declined to comment, citing the ongoing police inquiry. Thames Valley police issued a fresh appeal for information last week and indicated they could investigate any allegations of sexual misconduct, including a claim of inappropriate behaviour at Royal Ascot.
The BBC reported that the emails were forwarded to the palace just months after the Duke stepped down as a working royal, following a disastrous Newsnight interview in which he failed to apologise for his friendship with Epstein. Authorities in Monaco and Luxembourg were also informed about the emails, the broadcaster added.
Earlier this year, the Telegraph reported that the Duke had requested confidential information from the Treasury in 2010 about the financial crisis in Iceland, and shared details of the briefing with Jonathan Rowland. David Rowland had taken over the Luxembourg arm of Kaupthing Bank the previous year, which later became Banque Havilland and faced sanctions from UK and EU regulators.
