Neatly written on personal letter-headed paper, this invoice shows the Duchess of York’s request for £200,000 from a secretive offshore bank in the Caribbean.
To be paid to ‘marketing and promotion, as discussed and agreed’, the sum was signed off by directors of a British media investment firm then chaired by controversial Hong Kong tycoon Dr Johnny Hon.
The money, to be paid to Sarah Ferguson’s personal bank account, came just three months before she requested a £90,000 loan from the same company. The duchess said the sum was to kickstart a fledgling company making tea.
To be paid to ‘marketing and promotion, as discussed and agreed’, the sum was signed off by directors of a British media investment firm then chaired by controversial Hong Kong tycoon Dr Johnny Hon (right with Sarah Ferguson)
The invoice, published today for the first time, offers an extraordinary insight into payments made to British royals linked to Dr Hon.
On Saturday, the Daily Mail revealed how the duchess and the Queen’s grandchildren Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips have all been or are soon to be on the payroll of the flamboyant entrepreneur. Mrs Tindall was earning £100,000 a year for a non-executive directorship at the Global Group of companies, with the duchess earning £72,000 a year at another Global firm.
Mr Phillips is the salaried ‘figurehead’ of a horse racing venture launched with Dr Hon in Hong Kong two weeks ago.
In frank comments, Dr Hon, 47, told the Daily Mail the royals were brought on board because ‘of what they can do for individual projects’.
The duchess, 59, was a non-executive director of Dr Hon’s Hong Kong-based film investment firm Global Group Entertainment Ltd until October. He said her main role ‘was to introduce a few people to me in Hong Kong’.
A lawyer acting for Mrs Tindall, 38, initially said it was ‘wholly untrue’ that she was a non-executive director at Dr Hon’s Global Group.
It was only when the Mail provided documentary evidence of her contract with Global that they accepted she had indeed held the role advising Dr Hon on horse racing.
Dr Hon said she ‘introduced valuable trainers [and] professional contacts to us’.
Mr Phillips, 41, launched a horse racing venture, Global Group Premier Racing Club, with the businessman in Hong Kong two weeks ago.
The revelations shine a light on how Royal Family members who do not get a Sovereign Grant fund themselves.
The invoice (pictured), published today for the first time, offers an extraordinary insight into payments made to British royals linked to Dr Hon
The duchess made the request for £200,000 from the European Commerce Bank, on a residential street near Kingstown on St Vincent in April 2017. The bank was being used by media investment company Gate Ventures, then chaired by Dr Hon.
Also on the board was former BBC boss and Conservative peer Lord Grade and former Elvis Presley songwriter-turned-entrepreneur Geoff Morrow. The duchess became a director of the company later that year.
Documents obtained by the Daily Mail list Mr Morrow, 77, as chairman of the European Commerce Bank. Sources say he was involved in its purchase on behalf of a wealthy Chinese businessman. Dr Hon introduced Mr Morrow to the bank’s former owner.
Offshore banks on the island promise ‘high-level confidentiality’ and tax benefits.
In July 2017, three months after requesting £200,000 from Gate Ventures, the duchess asked Mr Morrow for a further £90,000 ‘loan’. When it was granted and signed off by Dr Hon, she said Mr Morrow had ‘single-handedly changed my world in every way’.
The duchess has suffered well-publicised financial difficulties and in 2010 was on the brink of bankruptcy after a series of bad business deals. A spokesman said the £290,000 amounted to two loans from Gate Ventures to help get her company Ginger & Moss off the ground. He said the £90,000 loan had been repaid.
But Companies House records for Ginger & Moss filed last year list it as a dormant company and there is no public record of the £290,000 loans. When the Mail visited the European Commerce Bank recently it was empty, having suddenly gone into voluntary liquidation earlier this year.
An ex-worker said there were five full-time employees but the bank did not do a single transaction in her time there.
A spokesman for the duchess said she ‘has a joint venture business, Ginger & Moss, with Gate Ventures. These payments relate to the historic and ongoing development of this business’. Mr Morrow and a spokesman for Gate Ventures did not respond to requests for comment.