the times | Wednesday January 19 2022 2GM 5
News
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have
set up 11 companies in the US tax haven
of Delaware despite living in California,
state filings have shown.
The companies, including one
thought to be for Harry’s multimillion-
dollar memoir book deal, have been
incorporated by Richard Genow, the
duchess’s lawyer, and Andrew Meyer,
her business manager.
The businesses have been set up
since April 2020, according to records,
and the names of the companies appear
to include a reference in Spanish to the
duchess’s freckles, and to a “babymoon”
getaway the couple took in 2019.
One of the companies incorporated
is Peca Publishing LLC, which is being
used by the duchess for the rights for
her children’s book The Bench.
Peca means freckles in Spanish, and
may reference a book Meghan wrote in
eighth grade called A Face without
Freckles... Is a Night without Stars,
according to the MailOnline.
Another company is called Orinoco
Publishing LLC, probably being used to
hold the rights for the duke’s blockbust-
er deal with Penguin Random HouseA powerful evangelical Christian
barrister at the heart of a cult-like
society at a leading public school had
“unfettered access” to groom and
sadistically abuse boys with impunity,
an investigation has found.
The 197-page review, published
yesterday, was commissioned by
Winchester College to examine abuse
Winchester abuser had unfettered access to boys, investigation finds
John Reynolds
A woman who says she saw the Duke of
York dancing with a “very young girl” at
the Tramp nightclub in London is
willing to serve as a witness in the
sexual assault case being brought
against him by Virginia Roberts
Giuffre, her lawyer indicated yesterday.
Shukri Walker’s testimony would
contradict Prince Andrew’s claim that
he was never at the nightclub, lawyers
for Giuffre said last week, as they made
a formal request to interview her. She
was also expected to contradict the
duke’s assertion that he had never met
Giuffre, they said.
Giuffre, 38, claims that she was
brought to London by Jeffrey Epstein
and Ghislaine Maxwell and forced to
have sex with the duke. She has said
that on the night in question, in March
2001, they took her out for dinner and
then to Tramp, before taking her and
the duke back to Maxwell’s home in
Belgravia.
Andrew, 61, has denied the claims. In
a 2019 interview on Newsnight he said
by John Smyth QC at the school from
the mid-1970s until 1982.
The review said a cult-like society,
the Christian Forum, had existed at
Winchester and that its members
“showed signs of what today would be
described as radicalisation”.
The abuse was brought to public
attention by a Channel 4 documentary
in 2017, and by the book Bleeding for
Jesus by Andrew Graystone. After theTV programme the fee-paying school
commissioned the review.
The school apologised for its role in
the “terrible experiences” suffered by
the victims of Smyth, who died in 2018.
It said in a statement: “The review...
demonstrates in particular that John
Smyth was able to infiltrate the college’s
Christian community and gain access
to the college’s pupils, providing him
with the opportunity to groom andthen abuse them.” John Thorn, the
college’s headmaster at the time, was
told of the abuse in 1982 but failed to
report it to the police.
Smyth subsequently moved to Zim-
babwe, where he “abused as many as 90
boys, possibly resulting in the death of
one”, the report said.
Boys were invited to Smyth’s home
for Sunday lunch with his wife and
three children. Some of the boys weregiven harsh beatings in Smyth’s garden
shed. The report said that pupils had
felt unable to report the abuse, and
suspicious staff members had not
shared their concerns.
It added that it was aware of 13 former
pupils who had been abused but said it
was “likely there were other victims”.
The Church of England has also
commissioned a review into how it
handled the allegation against Smyth.for his memoir. Several of the Sussexes’
Delaware companies were set up to
hold the trademarks for their charity,
Archewell, and companies linked to it.
There are also two entertainment
companies, set up by Genow and Meyer
last year, called Bridgemount LLC and
Hampshire LLC, which may reference
the babymoon.
Another company, Nemawashi
Holdings LLC, was set up in September
2020 and is described as a holding
company. Nemawashi is a Japanese
term meaning the informal process of
quietly laying a project’s foundation.
The US state of Delaware is known as
a tax haven as it does not make
company accounts public and allows
owners of companies to hide their
identities. Almost 65 per cent of For-
tune 500 companies are incorporated
in Delaware.
Genow told the Hollywood Reporter
in November that he had known Meyer
for more than 15 years. Meyer, a certi-
fied public accountant and founder of
the Beverly Hills entertainment wealth
management firm Freemark Financial,
lives with his wife in a $6 million six-bed
property in the exclusive neighbour-
hood of Holmby Hills, Los Angeles.Joe Root, England’s captain, Travis Head of Australia, top right, and the England bowler James Anderson were partyingBoth teams caught
out in Ashes booze-up
A
fter a ruthless
4-0 thrashing
in the Ashes
at the hands
of their old
rivals Australia,
England’s cricketers
might be forgiven for
drowning their sorrows.
However, it seems that
off the pitch the two
sides got on a little too
well for the liking of
their fellow hotel guests
and the Australian
police.
The England and
Wales Cricket Board has
begun an investigation
after officers were called
to break up an all-night
drinking session
involving “intoxicated”
England and Australian
cricketers.
Joe Root, the England
captain, the veteran fast
bowler Jimmy Anderson
and Graham Thorpe, the
assistant coach, were
among those
reprimanded for being
“too loud” and
instructed to go to bed
by police at about 6am
on Monday.
They appeared to have
been enjoying an all-night drinking session at
the team hotel in Hobart
after their humiliating
defeat in the fifth Test
match the previous
evening.
They were joined by
the Australian players
Nathan Lyon, Alex
Carey and Travis Head.
Mobile phone footage,
which appears to have
been taken by Thorpe,
captured the moment
four police officers
broke up the gathering
on the hotel balcony
after receiving a
complaint about the
noise.
“Too loud,” a female
officer is heard saying.
“You have obviously
been asked to pack up,
so we’ve been asked to
come. Time for bed.
They just want you to
pack up.”
A voice, believed to be
that of Thorpe, 52, is
heard, saying: “We’ve
got Nathan Lyon, Root,
there’s Carey and
Anderson. I’ll just video
this for the lawyers. See
you in the morning
everyone.”
The time of theincident suggested that
the players had been
unwinding all night after
the Ashes series ended.
In a statement,
Tasmanian police said
officers were called to
the Crown Plaza Hotel
after a complaint about
“intoxicated individuals”
but said no further
action would be taken.
Both teams were
staying at the hotel in
Hobart.
A spokesman for the
England and Wales
Cricket Board said:
“During the early hours
of Monday morning,
members of the England
and Australia men’s
team shared a drink in
the team areas of the
hotel in Hobart. When
asked to leave by hotel
management and
Tasmanian police, the
players and
management in question
left and returned to their
respective hotel rooms.
The England party have
apologised for any
inconvenience caused.
The hotel management
received a noise
complaint by a hotel
guest. The ECB will
investigate further, Until
such time we will make
no further comment.”
They deserve a party,
leading article, page 27iMeghan and Harry set up
11 companies in tax haven
John ReynoldsWitness to testify ‘she saw
Andrew dancing with girl’
that he had gone to a Pizza Express in
Surrey with Princess Beatrice that
afternoon and had then spent the eve-
ning at home with his children.
Weeks after the interview was broad-
cast, the American lawyer Lisa Bloom
held a press conference in New York,
announcing that she had been contact-
ed by a woman who said she had seenAndrew at Tramp at about the time of
Giuffre’s allegations.
Bloom said the witness had been in-
censed by the duke’s denials. She said
she recalled seeing him because she
had accidentally trodden on the duke’s
toe and apologised to him, Bloom said.
The witness said she had seen Maxwell
and Epstein at the club too, Bloom said.
The lawyer added that the witnesswould identify the young girl the duke
was dancing with as Giuffre. The wit-
ness was subsequently identified as
Walker, who lives in north London.
Bloom said Walker “is willing to do
the deposition Virginia Giuffre’s team is
seeking”. She said her client “has brave-
ly stepped forward as a witness and
encourages others who may have infor-
mation to do so as well”.
Maxwell, 60, was convicted of sex-
trafficking charges in a US court last
month.
Buckingham Palace announced last
week that Andrew would return his
military associations and patronages. It
declined to comment further.
6 The name of horse race run at York
racecourse is being ditching to distance
itself from Prince Andrew. The Duke of
York Stakes was first run in 1895 and
named in honour of Prince George,
Duke of York, who became George V.
York Racecourse said: “We are going to
explore how we can make the name a
lot clearer about its history — and that
the name refers to an entirely different
Duke of York.”Jack Malvern, Will Pavia
Lawyer Lisa Bloom
said the witness
was incensed by
Andrew’s denials