Meghan and Harry’s $14million Vancouver mansion is linked to Russian oligarch now sanctioned

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stayed at a mansion linked to a lawyer whose clients include a sanctioned Russian, when they left the UK in 2019, DailyMail.com can reveal.

The couple spent weeks at a $14million home on Vancouver Island, Canada, around Christmas of that year – but refused to disclose the identity of their generous host.

Company documents uncovered by DailyMail.com show the mansion, Mille Fleurs, was owned at the time by a British Virgin Islands company operated by a UK lawyer whose clients include dozens of Russian oligarchs and a former Russian deputy prime minister added to the US and UK sanctions list last week.

Questions over the identity of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s rumored Russian benefactor have taken on a new importance following a slew of sanctions against Putin’s allies after his invasion of Ukraine.  

The ex-royal couple posted their support of Ukraine on their Archewell charity website last month, writing ‘We stand with the people of Ukraine.’

But when asked who gave the Sussexes access to the eight-bed waterfront property for two months for their 2019 Christmas getaway, Harry and Meghan stayed silent.

The couple spent weeks at a $14million home on Vancouver Island, Canada, but refused to disclose the identity of their generous host

Neighbors told DailyMail.com Mille Fleurs’ owner was a secretive Russian billionaire, who has so far failed to report his property to a British Columbia registry despite a new transparency law compelling landowners to do so.

DailyMail.com learned the Vancouver Island mansion is owned by JEMC Management Limited, a firm in the opaque tax haven of the British Virgin Islands (BVI).

The only clue to the ultimate owner is the BVI firm’s service address: Tulloch & Co, in Mayfair, Central London – the law firm of British attorney Alastair Tulloch (pictured) 

The only clue to the ultimate owner is the BVI firm’s service address: Tulloch & Co, in Mayfair, Central London – the law firm of British attorney Alastair Tulloch.

Tulloch & Co.’s five-story townhouse office is the registered address for 40 UK companies and many more offshore firms in secretive tax havens, while Tulloch himself appears on the documents of 111 current and former UK firms, some of them owned by 28 Russian and Eastern European oligarchs and business tycoons identified by DailyMail.com.

One of Tulloch’s previous clients is Putin’s former right hand man, Igor Shuvalov.

Shuvalov, who served as First Deputy Prime Minister from 2012 to 2018, was added to the State Department’s sanctions list last week as a member of Putin’s inner circle.

The UK also placed a full asset ban on Shuvalov, calling him ‘a core part of Putin’s inner circle.’ 

Tulloch is known among the Russian elite as a go-to London attorney for the super wealthy billionaires and well-connected politicians, using complex corporate structures in secretive jurisdictions around the world.

The 66-year-old has managed to remain largely out of the public eye until DailyMail.com exposed his link to Harry and Meghan’s vacation mansion in 2020– despite having managed the companies of at least 28 Russian and Eastern European oligarchs and business tycoons as well as firms linked to Elton John and Kylie Minogue.

One of Tulloch’s previous clients is Putin’s former right hand man, Igor Shuvalov (left, with Putin). Shuvalov, who served as First Deputy Prime Minister from 2012 to 2018, was added to the State Department’s sanctions list last week as a member of Putin’s inner circle

Another of his Russia-linked clients is Andrey Vavilov (left), the former Russian deputy finance minister and secretary of state, who was accused of embezzling $231million from state funds –  an allegation he denies. Neighbors of the Vancouver Island mansion claimed that its owner was Israeli-Russian billionaire Yuri Milner (right), who has denied it

Music producer David Foster told DailyMail.com how his wife Katharine McPhee discovered that the Duke and Duchess were in need of a discreet spot for their first Christmas holiday. McPhee (right) went to school with Meghan (left) in Los Angeles and the two did theater together growing up

Another of his Russia-linked clients is Andrey Vavilov, the former Russian deputy finance minister and secretary of state, who was accused of embezzling $231million from state funds.

The allegation was made by Russia’s then central bank president Sergei Dubinin in 1997. At the time, Vavilov denied wrongdoing and said the multi-million-dollar transactions were legal, normal and approved by his superiors. Tulloch & Co. have previously told DailyMail.com that Vavilov has not been accused by Russian state prosecutors of any criminal conduct.

Vavilov is not subject to US or UK sanctions.

Documents from offshore companies leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) provided further evidence of Tulloch’s links to the top Moscow politicians. 

Neighbors of the Vancouver Island mansion previously claimed that its owner was Israeli-Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, who has denied it. 

A representative for Milner told DailyMail.com that ‘neither Yuri Milner nor any family member nor any entity affiliated with him or his family’ owned the property, though he had previously stayed there. 

Milner, one of Tulloch’s clients, bought more than eight percent of Facebook and five percent of Twitter using cash from Kremlin-controlled banks.

Tulloch has deep business ties with Milner, with his law firm previously acting as a service address for both UK and US arms of the oligarch’s flagship investment firm DST.

Canadian music producer David Foster told DailyMail.com that he is friends with the mansion owner, and that he and his wife, Meghan’s schoolfriend Katharine McPhee, arranged for the royal couple’s Christmas stay. 

Harry posed with Archie in this adorable photo while staying at the Vancouver Island mansion during Christmas 2019  

The home named Mille Fleurs (above) is where the royal couple finalized their plan to scale back their royal duties and move to the U.S. 

The property was bought around 2010 by Bernadette Wolfswinkel, the ex-wife of disgraced Arizona property magnate Conley Wolfswinkel who was convicted of bank fraud and was accused of owing US taxpayers $2 billion

Luxury property: The French country-inspired mansion was listed by Sotheby’s in 2012 and sold in 2014

Grandeur: The main house is 11,416 square feet with five bedrooms and eight bathrooms and a 2,349 square foot guest cottage with three beds and two baths

Foster said he also arranged for Milner to rent the home for a few weeks in 2014, but insisted that the Russian billionaire was not the owner.

A spokeswoman for Milner told DailyMail.com: ‘Neither Yuri Milner nor any family member nor any entity affiliated with him or his family owns this Canadian house or JEMC Management Limited. However, Mr Milner rented the house for a short period of time about five years ago and he is currently not renting it.’

In 2019 the British Columbia government passed a law requiring property held through offshore companies to reveal its true owners in a public register.

Despite the Land Ownership Transparency Act requirements, the owner of Mille Fleurs has not yet filed with the state registry.

BC has delayed the deadline for filing to November 2022. 

In a statement to DailyMail.com, Tulloch & Co. said they were ‘an easy target for misinformation’, adding that UK attorney rules ‘do not allow us to comment on client affairs’ but that the firm is ‘fully compliant with all UK laws and regulations.’

The firm said Tulloch represented two UK charities, the Oxford Russia Fund and the Khodorkovsky Foundation, that had been ordered by the Russian government to stop their work in Russia.

‘Press articles wrongly suggest that we act for the innermost circles of the Russian government elite; that this is incorrect is evident from the fact that Alastair Tulloch has himself been targeted by the Russian government,’ the firm said.

‘We are shocked and appalled by the invasion of the Ukraine; we deplore the use of violence and the violation of international law. Our deepest sympathies go out to all those whose lives have been so tragically impacted by these events, including our many clients and friends in the Ukraine.’

A spokeswoman for Harry and Meghan did not respond to requests for comment.