Prince Andrew appears to have been in contact with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein months longer than he previously claimed, according to newly surfaced court documents.
An email sent from a “member of the British Royal Family”, believed to be Andrew, told Epstein to “keep in close touch” and they will “play some more soon”.
The messages appear to show the Duke of York was in contact with Epstein as late as February 2011, contradicting previous claims that he broke off his friendship with the sex offender in 2010.
The new claim was made by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in court documents for a legal battle against former Barclays chief executive Jes Staley.
Mr Staley is appealing against a finding by the watchdog that he gave a misleading account of the nature of his relationship with Epstein, and denies doing so.
In an amended statement of the case, the FCA said that features of the relationship between Epstein and Mr Staley showed they were “close”, and that emails sent between the pair were “inconsistent with a business relationship”.
These included Epstein making “numerous introductions and recommendations for Mr Staley”, including with the royal family member, and calling each other “family” in some emails.
The FCA said: “On 15 June 2010, Mr Epstein emailed a member of the British Royal Family noting: ‘if you can find time to show jes around with vera that would be fun, he told me he ran into you tonight.’
“The royal family member replied asking who Vera was and noting that he had seen Jes in Harry’s Bar and would contact him in the morning.
“Mr Epstein replied on 15 June 2010 noting that Vera was ‘my future ex wife, i know jes and she would love to see home’.
“The royal family member replied on the same date that he was having ‘dinner with Jes tomorrow evening’.”
It continued: “On 27 February 2011, Mr Epstein emailed a member of the British royal family ‘jes staley will be in London on next tue afternoon, if you have time’.
“The recipient replied the following day ‘Jes is coming on 1st March or next week?’ and then following discussion of press articles ‘keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon!!!!’.”
The duke stepped down from official duties in 2019 following the furore over his friendship with Epstein, who died the same year having been jailed for child sex offences in 2008.
In an interview with BBC’s Newsnight, Andrew told Emily Maitlis: “I ceased contact with him (Epstein) after I was aware that he was under investigation and that was later in 2006 and I wasn’t in touch with him again until 2010.”
He later said that in December 2010: “I had to show leadership and I had to go and see him and I had to tell him, ‘That’s it’.”
The extent of their friendship was also laid bare in hundreds of pages of unsealed court documents for proceedings in the US, with Andrew paying millions to settle a civil sexual assault case with Virginia Giuffre, a victim of Epstein whom he claimed never to have met.
In 2023, Mr Staley was fined £1.8m and banned from holding senior roles in the financial sector by the FCA after it found he misled the watchdog over the nature of his relationship with Epstein.
The authority found that Mr Staley recklessly approved a letter sent by Barclays to the regulator which claimed the bank’s former boss did not have a close relationship with Epstein.
Mr Staley acted as a private banker to the disgraced financier during his time at JP Morgan, where he worked for more than 30 years, but claimed that his last contact with him was “well before” he joined Barclays in December 2015.
But the FCA found that in emails between the two, Mr Staley described Epstein as one of his “deepest” and “most cherished” friends.
Mr Staley is appealing against the FCA’s findings and denies that the letter contained misleading statements, with a hearing in the case held in London on Thursday.
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