Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2020-11-23)

It isn’tmuchfunthesedaysbeingPrinceAndrew,eighthin

linetotheBritishthrone.Lastyearhewasgroundedbyhis

mother,thequeen,aftera disastrousTVinterviewabout

hislinkstothelatemoneymanagerandconvictedpedo-

phileJeffreyEpstein.Theprincerarelyleavestheconfinesof

WindsorGreatPark,wherehelivesina 30-roomhouse,and

hehasn’tmadea publicstatementinmonths.Whenhedoes

communicate,it’sthroughlawyerssparringwithU.S.pros-

ecutorswhowanttoquestionhim.

ButEpsteinisonlythemostinfamouswealthyfinancier

theprincehashaddealingswith.There’sanotheronethe

publicknowslessabout.Foryears,Andrewactedasanunof-

ficialdooropenerforDavidRowlandandhisprivatebankin

Luxembourg,BanqueHavillandSA,accordingtoa troveof

emails,internaldocuments,andpreviouslyunreportedreg-

ulatoryfilingsreviewedbyBloombergBusinessweek, aswellas

interviewswith 10 formerbankinsiders.Hisroyalcachetand

hisroleastheU.K.’sspecialrepresentativeforinternational

tradeandinvestmentuntil 2011 helpedtheRowlandfamily

pitchtheirservicestopotentialclientsfromtheranksofthe

world’sdictatorsandkleptocrats.

Thenin 2011 a photographpublishedintheDailyMaildrew

unwantedscrutiny.It showedtheprincewithhisarmaround

a youngwomaninEpstein’sentourageasGhislaineMaxwell,

Epstein’sformergirlfriendandallegedco-conspirator, looked

on.Andrewwouldlater claim that the photograph may have

beendoctored,butthe image came at a bad time for the

Rowlands:Jonathan,David’s son and Banque Havilland’s

then-chief executive officer, was planning a trip to Cameroon,

Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon to scout for business, and he

wanted Andrew to join him.

The previous year the Rowlands had accompanied the

prince on an official visit to China, where Andrew had given

themaccesstosomeofhismeetings.Inothercountriesand

onotheroccasions,theyintroducedthemselvesasinvestment

adviserstotheprinceandtheroyalfamilywhenwooingclients.

ButAndrewneverwentonthattriptoAfrica.“Disappearfor

a while,” Jonathan advised the prince in an email obtained by

the Daily Mail, which has reported on some aspects of Andrew’s

dealings with the Rowlands.

Andrew’s relationship with the family was mutually benefi-

cial. It afforded him a lifestyle beyond the reach of his reported

$320,000 annual stipend, including trappings such as the use

of the Rowlands’ $45 million jet. He had a private bank account

at Banque Havilland and a credit card in the name of Andrew

Inverness, a pseudonym that’s an apparent nod to one of his

many titles, Earl of Inverness. For the Rowlands,Andrew’s

involvement brought some class to a tinyfinancialinstitu-

tion they’d purchased on the cheap in 2009fromtheruinsof

Iceland’s Kaupthing Bank.

They rechristened it after Havilland Hall,DavidRowland’s

estate on Guernsey, a tax haven in the ChannelIslands,and

settled on an unusually bold business model.Mostbankshave

become increasingly selective about their clientstoavoidrun-

ning afoul of anti-money-laundering rules.Governmentson

both sides of the Atlantic require them to vetthesourcesof

their clients’ wealth, monitor their transactions,andreportany

suspicious activity—with more stringent checksforthosewho

hold prominent public positions. But the pictureofBanque

Havilland that emerges from the documentsandinterviewsis

of a bank willing to work with people most otherfinancialinsti-

tutions would shun.

There was Kolawole Aluko, an energymagnatewhogot

a €25 million ($30 million) loan at a timewhenhewasthe

subject of media reports about a bribery scandalinNigeria’s

oil industry. Joshua Kulei, the personal assistanttoformer

Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi, receiveda £2.2million

($2.9 million) mortgage despite being bannedfromtheU.S.

becauseofgraftallegationshe’sdenied.Anda company

controlledbytheheirsofdeceasedGeorgianbusinessman

ArkadyPatarkatsishvili borrowed more than$5millionfrom

the Rowlands. The money was routed throughoneoftheir

accounts at the bank, over objections froma seniorcom-

pliance officer who described Patarkatsishvili,inemailsto

Jonathan Rowland and other bank executivesin2010,asan

alleged criminal and his money as tainted.

The emails don’t connect Andrew to anyoftheseclients,

and it isn’t known whether the Rowlands mentionedhimin

the course of these dealings. A BuckinghamPalacespokes-

woman,regardingthe prince’s former roleofspecialtrade

representative,saysthat “the aim, and thatofhisoffice,was

topromoteBritain and British interestsoverseas,notthe

interestsofindividuals.” She didn’t respondtospecific

questionsabouthis relationship withtheRowlandsor

Banque Havilland.

A spokesman for thebanksaysthat

none of its current or formerclientshad

beenintroducedorreferred by Prince Andrew,thatit had

neveremployedhim, and that he was never“apaidadvisor

orambassador.”Thespokesman also saysthat“compliance

withlegalandregulatory requirements aretheforemostpri-

ority”andthatthebank had “never extendeda loanwhereit

has received the explicit objection to proceedofitscompliance

officers.” David Rowland declined to comment.Jonathan,now

a nonexecutive director of a small bank in theU.K.,saidinan

email that he has never been censured or criticizedbya regu-

latory body, and that he has been approvedbyU.K.regulators

tobea directorandownerofa bank.

Theprinceandthefinancier were anoddpair.David

Rowland is 75, the son of a London scrap-metaldealer.He

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Bloomberg Businessweek November 23, 2020

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