Jeffrey Epstein discussed how Sarah Ferguson was considering ‘going bankrupt’ as Andrew called a ‘big meeting’ at Royal Lodge over her finances, emails reveal

Jeffrey Epstein discussed how Sarah Ferguson was considering going bankrupt ahead of a ‘big meeting’ at Royal Lodge when her finances were in peril, emails have suggested.

The paedophile financier was told that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and his former wife wanted to hold the summit at their Windsor mansion on September 1, 2010.

An unidentified person sent an email to Epstein two days earlier on August 30, saying ‘F writes me below. It’s better if I do NOT go, correct? PA says its up to me.’

‘F’ is believed to be Fergie and ‘PA’ is thought to refer to then-Prince Andrew.

The message quoted by that person from Fergie said: ‘Can you come down to Royal Lodge on sept 1st .. Wednesday.. To a big meeting of the way ahead of ME! Prince Andrew is calling it for 10.30am and then lunch afterwards.

‘I would really need your help, not just then, but maybe we can talk today, tomorrow. I am worried I need a ceo to run me.. Cannot do this without you.’

Epstein replied to the email from the person, saying: ‘Ask Andrew what he wants.. she said they might suggest her going bankrupt. when i spoke to her last week. I think you need to go. otherwise, she will go after you.’

The messages are among more than three million documents relating to Epstein that were released by the US Department of Justice on January 30.

The emails have also revealed Andrew went cap in hand to Epstein to settle a debt of $126,721 owed by Fergie to her PA – shedding new light on what he may have been discussing with Epstein on their infamous Central Park walk. 

The files showed money-spinning schemes for Fergie were also a frequent topic of conversation between Andrew and Epstein, with one email suggesting Vladimir the ‘Russian billionaire’ who ‘will finance everything’.

In another, Andrew suggested selling Nigerian oil to China for which his ex-wife could ‘make around $6million’.

Even one of Epstein’s advisers, David Stern, described this as ‘very fishy’.

Mr Stern, a Hong Kong investor with ties to Epstein who became a director of Andrew’s Pitch@Palace initiative, wrote to Epstein in September 2010 describing Andrew’s latest financial wheeze.

His email read: ‘PA has asked me to see a guy who has access to Nigeria oil and when selling it to China (or somebody else) F [Sarah Ferguson] can make around $6m.’

Mr Stern said: ‘This seems very fishy.’

A year previously, on September 11, 2009, Mr Stern emailed Epstein that the then Duchess of York wanted him to go with her to meet ‘Vladimir (she didn’t know the family name but says he is a Russian billionaire)’, adding: ‘She thinks he will finance everything in case you will not.’

After the meeting, Mr Stern reported that the billionaire was Vladimir Zemtsov, a Russian-born businessman who ‘seems substantial, pragmatic and for Russian standards discreet’. 

He was ‘willing to evaluate’ paying off Ms Ferguson’s debts, it was said.

Mr Stern said the Russian wanted a professional firm to manage Ferguson’s ‘branding and merchandise’ and would be prepared to ‘pay off the debt if the hired professional firm believes that the revenue side is more than the debt’.

A further meeting would be held over dinner in New York in a week, said Mr Stern. There are no further details about what they were all discussing.

By November that year, Mr Stern was suggesting Ms Ferguson was ’10million’ in the red, and was advising that her ‘option one’ was ‘bankruptcy’.

He added that option two was ‘deal with John Caudwell (English, founder of Phones4U) who wants 50% of her life earnings going forward for 10m, meaning paying off her debt’. He added: ‘This offer needs to be verified if it’s real!’

A spokesman for John Caudwell said: ‘Sarah Ferguson and John Caudwell were long-time acquaintances who initially met through John Caudwell’s support for some of Sarah Ferguson’s charity work. Sarah Ferguson later approached John Caudwell to discuss a potential business transaction to help clear her debt.

‘To be absolutely clear, until now, John Caudwell was unaware that Sarah Ferguson was consulting Jeffrey Epstein or anyone else on this matter. John Caudwell has never met or had any association or correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein.

‘John Caudwell ultimately decided not to go through with the business transaction at the time.’

Andrew was Britain’s trade envoy from 2001 to 2011, and during that time emails show he was forwarding official documents to Epstein, a Wall Street financier.

On November 30, 2010, the duke forwarded an email from his Buckingham Palace office that contained reports prepared by officials following a recent trip he had made to Hong Kong, Shenzhen in China, Vietnam and Singapore.

The same month, Epstein felt able to ask Andrew to make representations on his behalf to the then Emir of Qatar when the Gulf ruler was on a state visit to the UK.

Epstein asked the prince to ‘punch my card’ with Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. Andrew said Hamad had gone by then, but that a message had been passed on.

Then on Christmas Day that year, Andrew forwarded to Epstein a ‘confidential brief’ on investment opportunities in Afghanistan’s Helmand province.

Separate emails also shed new light on Andrew’s walk in Central Park with Epstein – given the former prince had gone cap in hand to Epstein to settle a debt of more than $125,000 that his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson owed to her PA of 18 years.

The infamous picture of Andrew and Epstein on December 5 came at a time when Fergie was mired in debt – but Epstein bailed her out.

Andrew told Epstein, then convicted of child sex offences, they would ‘play some more soon’ as they discussed settling her debts, one document shows.

‘It would seem we are in this together’, Andrew told him.

Fergie’s personal assistant, Johnny O’Sullivan, had been owed $126,721 in wages and the tuition costs for an MBA at Columbia University that his boss had promised to pay for.

Three months after Andrew and Epstein strolled through Central Park, the convicted sex offender brokered a deal with Mr O’Sullivan for around half the money, although he dragged his heels about paying and called Fergie’s loyal aide a ‘little sh*t’.

Fergie would later admit having Epstein pay her bills was a ‘gigantic error of judgement’.

Epstein stepped in to broker the deal with Mr O’Sullivan – and kept Andrew directly up to date.

In an email to Andrew he wrote: ‘He [Johnny] said he would take 60k in wages, pay tax and be done.. I don’t trust him at all, and a payment from me at the moment if disclosed to the press would look like a payoff for the little sh*t.’

Andrew replied: ‘I’m just as concerned for you! Don’t worry about me! It would seem we are in this together and will have to rise above it! Let me know if you want me to deal with J wages. Otherwise keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon!!!!’.

It was signed ‘A’, for Andrew.

Epstein appears to have paid – but initially resisted.

Another email shows how Mr O’Sullivan was left waiting.

He wrote to Andrew’s private secretary Amanda Thirsk on February 7, 2011: ‘Please can you let me know what’s happening re paying off my Columbia student debt.

‘Both the Duke and Duchess have asked what’s happening but I don’t have any information to share with them.’

Around ten days later he wrote again: ‘Dear Amanda, I have expressed my concern to you that despite all our concerted efforts I still remain unpaid. The financial arrangements have been agreed directly between the Duke, the Duchess and I for some 2 months.

‘Yet from what I understand there is no plan in place to pay me the $59,933 I am now clearly owed. I agreed to reduce the amount I am owed by the Duchess in wages from $72,596 to $59,933 in order to reach an agreement with the Duke and Duchess.

‘The Duchess then emailed me, twice, to say that my offer was acceptable to both her and the Duke. I did not waive my right to receive this money lightly given the debts incurred as a result of this nonpayment and resulting struggle I have endured to try and support myself and pay for my MBA course at Columbia.

‘This is completely unacceptable to me and in conflict with the spirit of good faith by which I thought agreement bad [sic] been reached. If I am not paid what I am owed, in fill [sic], by this coming Monday I will instruct lawyers.

‘In that case I will also look at going for the full amount since my agreement to the reduced figure was given on the basis of a prompt payment. I hope it will not come to this’.

It is not known if and when it was paid – but a document discovered on Epstein’s own desk suggested it was.

A 2015 picture of Epstein’s desk showed on it was a letter that titled ‘Settlement – John O’Sullivan’.

It stated that an agreement for the reimbursement of $59,933 had been made between Mr O’Sullivan, and the former Duke and Duchess.

Another email, seen by the Telegraph, suggests that he did pay.

Epstein wrote: ‘Whatever we think of him we are going to have to deal with him one way or another.’

He added: ‘He wants to get as much money as he can, I am trying to structure something where he signs papers and they are held until his money is received, otherwise he will get the money not sign and use the money to sue.

‘He is trying to divide and conquer I hope you can deal with him as I don’t think I can do anymore my end’.

During her marriage, Fergie spent wildly on staff, holidays, parties and flowers – with no regard for settling bills.

She reportedly had debts in excess of £3.7million by 1994 and became well-known for running up huge bills in stores such as Harrods without paying.

Andrew has always strenuously denied any wrongdoing.