Daily Mail, Monday, August 12, 2019 Page
QQQFe r g i e’s £200k invoice
Filed with bank in Caribbean, duchess’s bill for ‘marketing
and promotion’ – paid by Hong Kong millionaire’s UK firm
preneur. Mrs Tindall was earning
£100,000 a year for a non-executive
directorship at the Global Group of
companies, with the duchess earning
£72,000 a year at another Global firm.
Mr Phillips is the salaried ‘figure-
head’ of a horse racing ventureNEATLY written on personal
letter-headed paper, this
invoice shows the Duchess of
York’s request for £200,000 from
a secretive offshore bank in
the Caribbean.
To be paid to ‘marketing and pro-
motion, as discussed and agreed’,
the sum was signed off by directors
of a British media investment firm
then chaired by controversial Hong
Kong tycoon Dr Johnny Hon.
The money, to be paid to Sarah Fer-
guson’s personal bank account, came
just three months before she requested
a £90,000 loan from the same company.
The duchess said the sum was to kick-
start a fledgling company making tea.
The invoice, published today for the
first time, offers an extraordinary
insight into payments made to British
royals linked to Dr Hon.
On Saturday, the Daily Mail revealed
how the duchess and the Queen’s
grandchildren Zara Tindall and Peter
Phillips have all been or are soon to be
on the payroll of the flamboyant entre-‘High-level
confidentiality’From Glen Keogh
in St Vincent and the GrenadinesHandwritten bill: Duchess of York’s invoice
on her personal letter-headed paperZARA’S SECRET
£100,000 DEAL
WITH TYCOON
From Saturday’s MailMeeting: The
Duchess of
York with Dr
Johnny Hon
launched with Dr Hon in
Hong Kong two weeks ago.
In frank comments, Dr Hon,
47, told the Daily Mail the
royals were brought on board
because ‘of what they can do
for individual projects’.
The duchess, 59, was a non-
executive director of Dr Hon’s
Hong Kong-based film invest-
ment firm Global Group
Entertainment Ltd until
October. He said her main
role ‘was to introduce a few
people to me in Hong Kong’.
A lawyer acting for Mrs Tin-
dall, 38, initially said it was
‘wholly untrue’ that she was a
non-executive director at Dr
Hon’s Global Group.
It was only when the Mail
provided documentary evi-
dence of her contract with
Global that they accepted she
had indeed held the role advis-
ing Dr Hon on horse racing.
Dr Hon said she ‘introduced
valuable trainers [and] pro-
fessional contacts to us’.
Mr Phillips, 41, launched a
horse racing venture, Global
Group Premier Racing Club,
with the businessman in
Hong Kong two weeks ago.
The revelations shine a light
on how Royal Family mem-
bers who do not get a Sover-
eign Grant fund themselves.
The duchess made the
request for £200,000 from the
European Commerce Bank,
on a residential street near
Kingstown on St Vincent in
April 2017. The bank was
being used by media invest-
ment company Gate Ventures,
then chaired by Dr Hon.
Also on the board was
former BBC boss and Con-
servative peer Lord Grade
and former Elvis Presley
songwriter-turned-entrepre-
neur Geoff Morrow. Theduchess became a director of
the company later that year.
Documents obtained by the
Daily Mail list Mr Morrow, 77,
as chairman of the European
Commerce Bank. Sources say
he was involved in its pur-
chase on behalf of a wealthy
Chinese businessman. Dr
Hon introduced Mr Morrow
to the bank’s former owner.
Offshore banks on the island
promise ‘high-level confiden-
tiality’ and tax benefits.
In July 2017, three months
after requesting £200,000 from
Gate Ventures, the duchess
asked Mr Morrow for a further
£90,000 ‘loan’. When it was
granted and signed off by Dr
Hon, she said Mr Morrow had‘single-handedly changed my
world in every way’.
The duchess has suffered
well-publicised financial diffi-
culties and in 2010 was on the
brink of bankruptcy after a
series of bad business deals. Amant company and there is no
public record of the £290,
loans. When the Mail visited
the European Commerce Bank
recently it was empty, having
suddenly gone into voluntary
liquidation earlier this year.
An ex-worker said there were
five full-time employees but
the bank did not do a single
transaction in her time there.
A spokesman for the duch-
ess said she ‘has a joint ven-
ture business, Ginger & Moss,
with Gate Ventures. These
payments relate to the his-
toric and ongoing develop-
ment of this business’. Mr
Morrow and a spokesman for
Gate Ventures did not respond
to requests for comment.Did Prince Philip force her
to cut Balmoral stay short?
THE Duchess of York was
forced to leave Balmoral
yesterday after the Duke
of Edinburgh turned up
early for his summer holi-
day, it has been claimed.
Prince Philip has refused
to be under the same roof
as Sarah Ferguson since
her divorce from Prince
Andrew in 1996. It is said he
accuses her of having pub-
licly humiliated the Queen
and the royal family.
Some had hoped their
appearance together at
Princess Eugenie’s wed-ding last year had signalled
a thaw in relations.
But Balmoral sources said
the duchess, who arrived
on Thursday night, had to
unexpectedly leave for
London, sparking specula-
tion within the royal
household. She was spot-
ted catching a British Air-
ways flight at Aberdeen
Airport yesterday after-
noon. The Queen began
allowing the duchess tojoin the annual family
gathering at Balmoral
about six years ago.
But an insider said: ‘In
previous years the duchess
has left the day before the
Queen’s husband arrives.
‘This year he arrived yes-
terday, several days ear-
lier than expected, which
is rather strange, so the
duchess left.’ She was
expected to spend up to a
week with Prince Andrew
and their daughters Prin-
cess Beatrice and Princess
Eugenie at the castle.By Rebecca English
Royal Correspondent‘Suddenly went
into liquidation’spokesman said the £290,
amounted to two loans from
Gate Ventures to help get her
company Ginger & Moss off
the ground. He said the £90,
loan had been repaid.
But Companies House
records for Ginger & Moss
filed last year list it as a dor-