Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been served a summons to give evidence as a witness over how he obtained around $1 million of funding for his former Swiss ski chalet after becoming the first royal to be issued a witness summons in more than 150 years. A Turkish woman, Nebahat İşbilen, is suing her financial adviser, Selman Turk, accusing him of mismanaging her money for his own personal gain, which he denies. One aspect of a complicated case involves İşbilen claiming that Turk told her she needed to give former Prince Andrew the money as payment for help arranging her Turkish passport.
Turk disputes the account, arguing that she believed Mountbatten-Windsor would use his contacts in Turkey to help her husband, who was in prison there.Read More on Analysis A High Court judge has granted Turk permission to call Mountbatten-Windsor as a witness to give his own account of how he came to receive the money, which he used to fund a Swiss ski chalet. Mountbatten-Windsor has not been accused in the case. He is facing a separate investigation by Thames Valley Police, in England, over allegations of misconduct in public office, which he denies.
Andrew Lownie, author of biography Entitled, told Newsweek: "This is very bad news for the Monarchy, even if Andrew was being paid £750,000 [around $1 million] to talk to people in Turkey that would be a breach of his responsibilities. I think this is huge and it could be one of the bits that unravels Andrew." The trial is due to begin in November and Mountbatten-Windsor's evidence in mid-December. Newsweek approached Mountbatten-Windsor's legal team by email for comment.
It is the first time since 1870 that a British royal family member has been issued a court summons, and if his testimony goes ahead, it will expose Mountbatten-Windsor to cross examination by a lawyer under oath in a public forum for the first time. The last time he answered questions in any kind of public forum was the November 2019 BBC Newsnight interview that precipitated the end of his career as a working royal. That sitdown was about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and allegations that he had sex with Virginia Giuffre when she was a 17-year-old sex trafficking victim of Epstein in 2001, which he has always denied.
The current High Court case is not related to Epstein in any way. While the case does not relate to Epstein, it does relate to another subject long debated in the U.K. media: where Mountbatten-Windsor's money came from. A High Court ruling by Judge Adam Johnson, seen by Newsweek, states that İşbilen accused Turk of "saying she needed to make a purported 'gift' of £750,000 by way of payment for assistance the then Duke of York had provided in relation to Mrs İşbilen’s Turkish passport.
Mrs İşbilen alleges this representation was false, as Mr Turk well knew at the time; and consequently, he was dishonest in making it." Turk denied any dishonesty and, according to the judgment, says: "İşbilen made her gift to the then Duke of York on her own initiative and for her own reasons." "In summary, he alleges that by 15 November 2019, Mrs İşbilen had developed the perception that the Duke of York, through his connections in Turkey, might be able to assist her husband, in prison there," Johnson wrote. "In order (as she saw it) to create goodwill with the Duke, she arranged to make the gift referred to. That was nothing to do with any assistance regarding her Turkish passport." Johnson noted that İşbilen and Turk have tried to cast doubt on each other's reliability as witnesses.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
