The Duke of York’s office has said it has “ceased all contact” with the businessman accused of being a Chinese spy after receiving advice from the government.
In a statement, his office said Prince Andrew met the man “through official channels” and “nothing of a sensitive nature was ever discussed”.
This alleged spy has been banned from Britain. A decision by Britain’s semi-secret National Security Court.
The man, known only as H6, was described as a “close confidant” of Prince Andrew who had built up an “unusual degree of trust” with the Duke.
In 2023, H6 appealed its initial ban but the court upheld the decision.
Jurors were told the businessman was trying to take advantage of Prince Andrew’s influence.
Duke’s office said it was “unable to comment further on matters of national security”.
Her statement did not specify when she ended contact with the man or the duration of their conversation.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment, saying they do not work for the prince, who is not a royal employee.
China’s embassy in the UK has denied the spying claim, saying “some people in the UK are always keen to fabricate baseless ‘spy’ stories to target China”.
“Their intention is to defame China and disrupt normal exchanges between Chinese and British officials,” an embassy spokesman said.
In March 2023, the man known as H6 brought his case to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, a court set up to hear appeals against decisions to ban or remove someone from the country on national security or related grounds. had gone
i Order continuedThe judge said former Home Secretary Savilla Braverman was “entitled to reach that conclusion. [H6] represented a threat to the national security of the United Kingdom” and that the Home Secretary was “entitled to conclude that his exclusion was justified and proportionate”.
The ruling explained that the man was the subject of a high-level national security investigation because Britain’s intelligence agencies feared he was seeking influence over a member of the royal family.
H6 was invited to Prince Andrew’s birthday party in 2020 and told he could act on his behalf when dealing with potential investors in China, the court was told.
It is unclear how the H6 came to be near the prince, but in November 2021 police officers stopped and questioned him at the UK border to investigate suspicions of “hostile activity” by a foreign state.
During this stop, H6 surrendered several electronic devices, including a mobile phone.
What the officers found on them so alarmed the security service MI5 that Braverman used his extraordinary powers to ban H6 from the country.
In a letter found on one of his devices, Prince Andrew’s adviser Dominic Hampshire told H6: ” [the prince’s] The closest inner confidant, you sit right at the top of a tree that many people would love to live on.”
Mr Hampshire added: “Under your guidance, we found a way to get the concerned people in and out of the house at Windsor unnoticed.”
The excerpt from the letter included in the order gave no further details about who the “persons concerned” were.
Mr Hampshire also confirmed to H6 that he could be working on discussions “with potential partners and investors in China” for Prince Andrew.
A document of “main talking points” for the call with Prince Andrew was also found.
It says: “Important: manage expectations. It’s really important not to set ‘too high’ expectations – he’s in a desperate situation and will grab anything.”
The court surmised that this meant that H6 was “in a position to develop relationships between senior Chinese officials and prominent UK figures which could be exploited by the Chinese state for the purposes of political interference”.
Security chiefs feared Beijing was trying to launch an “arrest of elites” operation to influence the Duke of York as he was under pressure, a tactic aimed at high-ranking Chinese businesses, think tanks or universities. The profile is to deploy individuals.
H6 was later informed that British authorities believed he was associated with the United Front Work Department (UFWD), a wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tasked with carrying out influence operations.
The ruling said that MI5’s director-general, Ken McCallum, had expressed concern about the threat posed to the UK by political interference from China and that organizations such as the UFWD were “patient, well-funded, bought and sold”. Running a fraudulent campaign to sell.”
The Home Office said it believed H6 was engaged in covert and fraudulent activities on behalf of the CCP and that his relationship with Prince Andrew could be used for political interference.
Upholding Braverman’s decision, the judges said H6 had “earned extraordinary trust from a senior member of the royal family who was willing to engage in business activities with him”.
He added that the relationship had developed at a time when the prince was “under a lot of pressure” which would have made him “susceptible to this kind of abuse of influence”.
The prince has faced increasing scrutiny since late 2019 over his friendship with American financial and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including his infamous Newsnight interview in November of that year.