Prince Andrew held his shareholdings through a government-backed shell company that was created to conceal royal investments from public scrutiny.
The prince was among at least five members of the royal family who used the shell company Bank of England Nominees, which was set up in the 1970s to prevent the “embarrassing” public disclosure of Queen Elizabeth II’s investments.
The monarch successfully lobbied the government to alter a draft law in order to permit the Windsors to hide the size and value of their shareholdings from the public. The shell company operated for more than 30 years.
The Guardian has established that the queen was not the only royal to use the facility. Her sister Princess Margaret, her husband Prince Philip, and her children Charles and Andrew also held shares via Bank of England Nominees.
Andrew’s use of the shell company, which has not previously been reported, is significant because he was a government “special trade envoy” at the same time. Through this role he would have had access to commercially sensitive information.
Transparency rules designed to expose potential conflicts of interest require government ministers and members of parliament to publicly declare any significant shares they own.
However, the royals are not subject to similar rules. There is no suggestion Andrew used commercial information improperly, but the concealment of his investments raises questions about government oversight of potential conflicts of interest.
In 1973, a proposed bill to make company shareholdings more transparent would have enabled public scrutiny of the queen’s finances. Archived documents revealed that the queen’s personal lawyer “took fright” at the proposal and warned the government that the monarch did not want the public to discover what shares she owned because that would be “embarrassing”.
The palace secretly lobbied the government to “find a way out” of the quandary. The solution involved a clause quietly introduced into the legislation that allowed the government to exempt specific companies from the requirement to declare the identities of certain categories of shareholders, such as heads of state, foreign governments and international organisations.
That, in turn, paved the way for Bank of England Nominees, the shell company set up in 1977. For more than three decades, the scheme prevented the public from being able to detect which of the shares owned by the shell company were held specifically on behalf of the British monarch or her family, as opposed to other heads of state or foreign government officials.
New documents obtained by the Guardian show the scheme was wound up in 2011 by the government after Whitehall officials described it as “anachronistic” and “difficult to defend”.
Rose Whiffen, senior researcher for anti-corruption campaign group Transparency International, said of the Guardian’s revelation that Andrew used the shell company to mask his investments: “Trade envoys are privy to insider knowledge, which is why transparency is key to reveal potential conflicts of interest so that they may be properly addressed.”
A palace spokesperson said: “We would not comment on private investments of members of the royal family. They are managed by independent investment managers without the day-to-day involvement of members of the royal family.”
Charles and Prince Philip stopped using the shell company in 2007 and 2008 respectively. The Queen’s sister, Margaret, had also used the scheme, as did the financial specialists who managed her estate after her death in 2002.
The documents do not specify which shares were held by each of the royals, nor their value.
In 2011, Vince Cable, the then business secretary, scrapped the scheme. Before he did so, his officials advised him to call the queen’s most senior adviser.
An official wrote: “We understand that members of the royal family still have shareholdings in UK public companies and unless they and all those who have an interest in them are specifically exempted, these shareholdings would now need to be made public if the companies concerned asked for details of beneficial ownership.
“It is not clear whether advisers to the royal family are aware of the removal of the exemption, or understand the implications.”
It is not known how the royal family responded to the closure of the shell company to continue keeping secret their shareholdings. The spokesperson said that their private financial arrangements “remain private as they would for any other individual”.
NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Tesla soared Wednesday as investors bet that the electric vehicle maker and its CEO Elon Musk will benefit from Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Tesla stands to make significant gains under a Trump administration with the threat of diminished subsidies for alternative energy and electric vehicles doing the most harm to smaller competitors. Trump’s plans for extensive tariffs on Chinese imports make it less likely that Chinese EVs will be sold in bulk in the U.S. anytime soon.
“Tesla has the scale and scope that is unmatched,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, in a note to investors. “This dynamic could give Musk and Tesla a clear competitive advantage in a non-EV subsidy environment, coupled by likely higher China tariffs that would continue to push away cheaper Chinese EV players.”
Tesla shares jumped 14.8% Wednesday while shares of rival electric vehicle makers tumbled. Nio, based in Shanghai, fell 5.3%. Shares of electric truck maker Rivian dropped 8.3% and Lucid Group fell 5.3%.
Tesla dominates sales of electric vehicles in the U.S, with 48.9% in market share through the middle of 2024, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Subsidies for clean energy are part of the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022. It included tax credits for manufacturing, along with tax credits for consumers of electric vehicles.
Musk was one of Trump’s biggest donors, spending at least $119 million mobilizing Trump’s supporters to back the Republican nominee. He also pledged to give away $1 million a day to voters signing a petition for his political action committee.
In some ways, it has been a rocky year for Tesla, with sales and profit declining through the first half of the year. Profit did rise 17.3% in the third quarter.
The U.S. opened an investigation into the company’s “Full Self-Driving” system after reports of crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one that killed a pedestrian. The investigation covers roughly 2.4 million Teslas from the 2016 through 2024 model years.
And investors sent company shares tumbling last month after Tesla unveiled its long-awaited robotaxi at a Hollywood studio Thursday night, seeing not much progress at Tesla on autonomous vehicles while other companies have been making notable progress.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 100 points in late-morning trading, helped by strength in base metal and utility stocks, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 103.40 points at 24,542.48.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 192.31 points at 42,932.73. The S&P 500 index was up 7.14 points at 5,822.40, while the Nasdaq composite was down 9.03 points at 18,306.56.
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.61 cents US compared with 72.44 cents US on Tuesday.
The November crude oil contract was down 71 cents at US$69.87 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down eight cents at US$2.42 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$7.20 at US$2,686.10 an ounce and the December copper contract was up a penny at US$4.35 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 200 points in late-morning trading, while U.S. stock markets were also headed higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 205.86 points at 24,508.12.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 336.62 points at 42,790.74. The S&P 500 index was up 34.19 points at 5,814.24, while the Nasdaq composite was up 60.27 points at 18.342.32.
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.61 cents US compared with 72.71 cents US on Thursday.
The November crude oil contract was down 15 cents at US$75.70 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down two cents at US$2.65 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was down US$29.60 at US$2,668.90 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents at US$4.47 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2024.
