Financial corruption to trafficked teen girls: Dr. Lownie calls for ‘full investigation into Andrew’

Financial corruption to trafficked teen girls: Dr. Lownie calls for ‘full investigation into Andrew’

It’s shot to the top of the bestseller list in the UK on day one. Virginia Ju’s memoir, Nobody’s Girl, exposes the rich and powerful men surrounding disgraced financeier Jeffrey Epstein and the abuse she endured as a 17-year-old, including from Prince Andrew, who last week relinquished his royal duties ahead of publication. Ju, who committed suicide back in April. More from Eliza Herbert. Prince Andrew long sought to distance himself from sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, but the stories stacked up and one proved fatal to his royal title of Duke of York. In a posthumous memoir by Virginia Du Fry, she wrote that Andrew believed having sex with her was his birthight and alleged she was forced to have sex with him on three occasions, even when she was 17. On Sunday, Andrew released a statement vigorously denying accusations against him, but concluded following a discussion with the king that they were distracting from the work of his majesty and royal family and thus he renounced his titles. Experts say the move is unlikely to stop the public scrutiny. And we have to remember at the heart of all this is not really the royal family at all. It it is the the victims of Jeffrey Epstein and Virginia Frey being one of them. We’re going to hear very very harrowing details of her life and the the sex trafficking she was subjected to. Um, and that is going to spawn more headlines. Prince Andrew stepped back from public life in 2006. Years later, in a well publicized interview on News Night, he said he had cut ties with Epstein in 2010. However, an email emerged recently in UK media in which Andrew wrote to the disgrace financier in 2011 to say, “We are in this together.” He also agreed to pay a 12 million pound settlement to Juy in 2022. Andrew will remain a prince as he is the second son of the late Queen Elizabeth II. His former wife Sarah Ferguson will no longer use the title of Duchess of York. For more, let’s cross to historian Andrew Lai. He’s the author of Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York. Thank you so much for speaking with us here on France 24. Pleasure. Uh f first off, uh when did you first have an inkling that uh Prince Andrew something was a miss when it came to Jeffrey Epstein? Well, I mean, clearly there’s been a lot of coverage of his relationship with Epstein going back to, I suppose, 2011. I started researching this book about five years ago. Uh, and, uh, it was very quickly apparent that the relationship with Epstein, both of Sarah Ferguson and Andrew, was much closer, began much earlier, and ended much later than they had claimed publicly. Uh, indeed, I’ve discovered that almost everything that Prince Andrew says has to be double checked for for the truth. Um but I think you know clearly the publication to de of Virginia Jeffrey’s book really brings home the the the relationship the the the extraordinary um uh awful way in which uh she and other victims were treated. Uh and I think the fact that she’s speaking from beyond the grave has a certain poignency. Uh uh Andrew probably thought he was off the hook. Uh and now I think his his he’s absolutely on the ropes. Uh can you explain to us uh his you his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson? What is the relationship between Prince Andrew, Sarah Ferguson and Jeffrey Epstein? Well, both of them both Sarah Ferguson and Andrew were close friends of Epstein. Epstein uh paid many of Sarah Ferguson’s debts. Uh she claims 15,000. Uh the true figure is nearer probably 2 million pounds. Uh she herself said that she had cut off links with Epstein at the beginning of 2011. Few weeks later she was writing to him in very ausive terms and she continued to stay at his properties until at least 2014 which rather puts a lie to her public uh um uh denouncement of him. Uh but she was worried clearly about a career with charities dealing with with children. Um but I think what Epstein got from them was some sort of cudos status. he was able to go to the what he called the hattrick of Bul Morals uh Sandringham and Windsor Castle uh and they got of course um money which is what they needed and Andrew of course got as a sideline ready supply of young women. You heard in that report there uh one expert saying this won’t taint the royal household. This is all just about Andrew. Do you agree? No, I don’t. I I think they’ve had years to deal with this problem. They knew about it. They covered it up. Uh Jeffrey herself speaks in her book and I also talk about it about the way they tried to where they did successfully shut down the ABC TV investigation into Andrew by threatening to remove any access to the royals. Uh time and time again things were taken to the queen. Complaints about his behavior uh and nothing was done. The queen in fact used to give him honors just after some sort of scandal. So they’re deeply imp implicated in all this. uh they’ve tried to put pressure on writers. The foreign office for example were told not to speak uh ambassadors were told not to speak to me. Uh and um uh I I think that there is something rotten in the state of Denmark that there needs to now be a full investigation into Andrew’s activities and indeed into wider questions of royal accountability and transparency. Is there more transparency for far too long? Is there more transparency now that it’s Charles that’s the king? No, I’m afraid there isn’t. Uh I mean the Royal Wales are still unsealed. There’s no royal register. Royals are still part of the um Freedom Information Act and therefore are exempt. Um we have a situation where for example all the files on Andrew’s time as a trade envoy taxpayer funded position are still closed. uh um and we have no parliamentary scrutiny of the royals and and these things I think need to change for their own sake because they depend on the trust of the people and at the moment trust in the institution is rock bottom. In your book Andrew Lai you write that uh Prince Andrew was quote easy prey for a rattlesnake like Epstein. Can you explain? Well, Epstein was a very sophisticated operator. Uh, and um, Andrew afraid is not. Uh, and he was lowhanging fruit. Uh, Epstein could see he Epstein described him and Bill Clinton is his Super Bowl trophies. Uh, these were his two star characters that he could exploit and play with uh, and and take advantage of. And I certainly Andrew has been caught in comp what we call compromats. Uh, so there’s a lot of material around in which people could put pressure on Andrew. uh we know that Epstein traded in information with other countries and other intelligence services. So there are wider questions of national security and indeed I think one of the things that’s made the the king act on Friday were complaints from the government about Andrew’s associations with alleged German uh Chinese spies. Alleged Chinese spies. Does it go beyond China? Use the word compromat. That’s a Russian word. Yes. I mean I certainly quote a Russian spy in my book. Uh I quote someone called Tim Riley who uh an ex Cambridge academic and uh member of uh worked for Croll talking about Russian compromat uh we know that he was compromised in Kazakhstan uh very close relations with with Russia uh but was also Libya, Middle East and China. They all understand have compromat on on Andrew. So this is a wider question. It goes beyond his own financial corruption to actually how the institution itself connived and supporting and protecting him and knowing exactly what he was up to and into wider national intelligence issues. Uh so it it it’s really quite a serious matter. I think the most serious crisis for the monarchy since the abdication crisis of 1936. Bigger than the prince the death of princess Diana. Yes. because here we’re talking about financial corruption within the royal family. Uh that was just really the death of the ex-wife of the future king. Um I mean this goes to the heart of the institution itself and wider questions of of why they protected him. Uh and and I would argue that I’ve only got the tip of the iceberg and some of the things have been going on. So there needs to be much much wider uh accountability. I would like a parliamentary investigation, for example, into his time as a trade envoy with ambassadors who know exactly what he was up to. He was shoehorning in business for his mates uh uh being able having to testify on oath to exactly what has happened. At the outset of this conversation, Andrew Liy, you mentioned that with the publication of Virginia Ju’s book, uh it’s also about these uh young women, girls sometimes who were prayed upon. Uh and the title of your book is entitled. Uh and there is it goes beyond just the royals. This sense of entitlement is that still exists today as it did back then. Absolutely. I think uh you know it’s you’re absolutely right. It’s part of a much wider network of elites who believe that they can operate exactly as they want and take advantage of the vulnerable. I mean many of these young girls that were trafficked to Andrew and others uh were and they ordered them from sort of books and photographs were you know young early teenagers couldn’t speak English many of them aspiring models brought through the model agencies of people like Jean Luke Brunell um so yes it is a wider question about uh power rich and powerful people abusing their power and trying to control the narrative. I think the the exciting thing is the media have now woken up to the scandal and are actually investigating it and this is why you know these scandals are emerging day by day. I envisionage a number of people perhaps being investigated and per and I hope having to stand trial. Many powerful people in both countries and certainly in Britain and America. Yeah. One final question for you Andrew Loody. What do you make of you just issued a York call for uh an investigation into how the royals behaved in Britain? What do you make of uh the uh reaction in the UK versus the reaction in the United States? Well, I think you know with the two the quite similar in some ways. I mean, we’ve had, you know, concerns in America about what, you know, the swamp, uh, and Trump offering to to open files of things people thought, you know, uh, contro controversies that that being covered up. And I think we’re getting exactly the same thing here. I mean, I think the sad thing is that Trump clearly is not going to perhaps fully open the Epstein files because he’s he’s fearful of what it might actually reveal. Uh but we certainly have got to a tipping point in this country and I think it’s happened literally over the last weekend. Uh I go around talking at literary festivals to the sort of people in middle England who traditionally supporters of the monarchy as I am uh who are appalled by Andrew’s behavior and the way it’s been covered up by the institutions that they believe should be protecting and representing us. Andrew Lowry, the author of Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York. So many thanks for speaking with us here on France 24. Not at all. Stay with us. There’s much more to come. More news, plus the today’s business and sports. [Music]

Dr. Andrew Lownie, Historian and Author, explores how the once‑celebrated Duke of York evolved from Falklands war hero into a figure mired in scandal, his downfall emblematic of the modern monarchy’s vulnerabilities. His book Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York reveals a far deeper and longer‐running relationship with Jeffrey Epstein than publicly acknowledged, details the role of Sarah Ferguson and royal institutions in the cover‑ups, and argues that the crisis goes beyond personal misconduct to systemic failure: in financial dealings, diplomatic entanglements and institutional transparency. The monarchy, Dr. Lownie argues, not only failed to act but actively suppressed scrutiny: pressuring media outlets, muzzling diplomats, and insulating itself from accountability mechanisms that govern other public institutions. In doing so, has the royal family compromised its very legitimacy? Can 21st-century constitutional monarchies survive 20th-century secrecy and hubris?
#PrinceAndrew #SarahFerguson #JeffreyEpstein

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