Prince Andrew has been seen in the saddle a day after claims emerged that the King was aware of an investment fund in which Yang Tengbo, an alleged spy, was involved.
The prince was pictured riding a horse near his home in Royal Lodge in Windsor, Berkshire. A witness statement provided to an immigration tribunal by Dominic Hampshire, a senior adviser to Prince Andrew, said he and the Duke were twice smuggled into Windsor Castle for clandestine meetings with the King during which the Eurasia Fund was discussed. The fund would have provided an income for the Duke following his public fall from grace.
It aimed to plough Chinese investment into renewable energy projects in Africa.
The fund never began trading and it failed to get off the ground, sources say, but it appears to have been linked to an entity called Eurasia Global Partners.
Yang Tengbo was banned from the UK on national security grounds and was a junior partner, owning under a third of the company, reports The Telegraph.
Also in the document, Mr Hampshire said he had discussed work not only with the King but with key advisers to Elizabeth II.
Buckingham Palace said on Friday that the King had no knowledge of the Duke’s dealings with Yang, previously identified in court documents as H6, who they said was never directly mentioned in their meetings.
A palace spokesman said: “While His Majesty met with the Duke and his adviser to hear outline proposals for independent funding over the past year, the individual known as H6 was not mentioned at any time or in any way as part of these discussions.”
The sighting of Prince Andrew is also the first following claims from his accuser Virginia Giuffre who said she had just “four days to live” following bus crash.
Prince Andrew was pictured with a female companion looking stern-faced during his weekly horse riding in Windsor.
It comes days after Ms Giuffre, 41, posted online saying she had suffered serious injuries after a horror crash in Australia.
