Prince Andrew has applied to shut down his last remaining business interests, including his firm that aimed to help entrepreneurs, it has emerged. Pitch@Palace was founded in 2014 to “provide a platform for UK entrepreneurs to make transformational connections that could accelerate their businesses”.
The firm had two parts, a UK-based version “set up as a community interest company, which cannot pay profits to shareholders” and an international arm – Pitch@Palace Global Ltd – which “was set up as a for-profit UK company”. The disgraced royal, who was stripped of his titles and honours due to his links to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epsteinmm, had claimed it had seen 3,000 jobs created.
In a document filed with Companies House on Tuesday, signed off by Arthur Lancaster, the firm’s sole director, the company filed an application to be “struck off and dissolved”.
Companies House lists Prince Andrew of Royal Lodge, Windsor, as having “significant influence or control” over the business.
Andrew resigned from his role with Pitch@Palace in 2019 after the backlash which followed an interview he gave to the BBC’s Newsnight programme.
The latest set of accounts showed that it had £10,965 in cash at the end of March, down from £220,990 the previous year.
The business was mired in controversy last year when it emerged that the founder-partner of PitchPalace China was an alleged spy.
Yang Tengbo, who is said to have become a close confidant of Andrew, was banned from the UK by the Home Office.
Andrew, who now has the status of a commoner, is set to move from Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park sometime in the new year to the King’s private Sandringham estate after he was banished from the royal family.
The King took action by stripping his younger brother of his birthright to be a prince and his dukedom over his “serious lapses of judgment”.
The former prince has for many years been dogged by allegations that he sexually abused Virginia Giuffre after she was trafficked by Epstein. Andrew strenuously denies the accusations.
It also emerged in recent weeks that he had emailed Epstein in 2011 saying “we’re in this together”, three months after he claimed he had broken all contact with the paedophile financier.
Andrew’s conduct could be debated by MPs for the first time this week, with the Liberal Democrats intending to raise his Royal Lodge rental arrangements, including details about the size of any payout for leaving the property, after the Commons returns from recess on Tuesday.