Prince Andrew faces probe calls over the possible sale of contacts to start-up firm for millions

The information watchdog was last night urged to investigate Prince Andrew’s controversial plans which could see him profit from the ‘illegal’ sale of data acquired by his Dragon’s Den-style investment company.

As the Mail revealed last week, the Duke of York is in talks to sell valuable contacts from his Pitch@Palace programme to a private firm.

It is thought the deal could generate millions for Andrew and help him hold on to Royal Lodge, the Grade II listed royal property in Windsor Great Park where he lives with his ex-wife Sarah, the Duchess of York. 

The King pulled his brother’s estimated £1 million annual funding in September and has been trying to evict him from the 30-room property.

Last night Information Commissioner John Edwards was urged to intervene and stop the planned sale to Dutch firm Startupbootcamp.

Former Lib Dem minister Norman Baker, a critic of royal financing, told the Mail he had written to Mr Edwards to ask him to ‘intervene speedily to prevent what I believe could be a serious and illegal use of data’.

‘In my view, those who supplied data to Pitch@Palace did so in the belief that this was a state-endorsed charity operation, run from Buckingham Palace,’ Mr Baker said in the letter, seen by the Mail.

‘They would have had an expectation that their data would be used accordingly and would not, I suggest, be happy to see their data now passed to a private company as a means of enriching Prince Andrew personally. I contend that the data is not transferable without permission having been sought from and given by each person or company on whom Pitch@Palace held data.’

The deal could generate millions for Andrew and help him hold on to Royal Lodge, the Grade II listed royal property in Windsor Great Park, where he lives with his ex-wife, Sarah, the Duchess of York

Pitch@Palace was launched by the Duke in 2014 as a not-for-profit Dragon’s Den-style investment fund in which investors were paired up with start up businesses at events staged at royal palaces, including Buckingham Palace.

He subsequently rolled out a commercial version of the project, Pitch@Palace Global Ltd, of which the Duke was the ‘significant’ controller and entitled to a 2 per cent share of any investment deal for three years.

The company staged events in the UK and in 16 other countries, including China, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Australia and Canada.

But Andrew was forced to step away from the project following his disastrous 2019 BBC Newsnight interview over his relationship with the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. He has not received any public money since and his estimated £4 million annual state-funded security was also subsequently cut by the Home Office.

Then, in a further embarrassment, it emerged in December that Yang Tengbo, who ran the Chinese arm of Pitch@Palace, had been barred from the UK for being an alleged spy.

Mr Yang denies the allegation and launched an appeal against an order keeping him out of the UK. But court documents revealed his close business ties to the Duke and their plans to regenerate the Pitch@Palace programme under a different brand, Innovate Global, together.

Startupbootcamp funds startup businesses around the world. Last week the Mail revealed that it is part owned by investment vehicle, Waterberg Stirling, based in Bahrain.

Pitch@Palace was launched by the Duke (pictured) in 2014 as a not-for-profit Dragon’s Den-style investment fund in which investors were paired up with start up businesses at events at royal palaces, including Buckingham Palace

Waterberg Stirling’s vice-chairman, Oleg Firer, is Grenada’s former ambassador to Russia and Prince Andrew’s ‘senior aide’ Dominic Hampshire, who spoke to Yang on an ‘almost daily’ basis, sits on the board.

In 2023, Mr Firer was barred from entering Grenada on national security grounds in a case reminiscent of Yang. Last summer, Mr Firer was invited to Royal Lodge to discuss Waterberg Stirling’s proposals.

He insists the decision to bar him from Grenada was politically-motivated and he was not provided with any information explaining the decision.

The Duke of York was approached for comment.