Buckingham Palace Received 30,000 Emails on Trade Envoy Role

Buckingham Palace received an archive of more than 30,000 emails in 2020 that reportedly relate to the activities of Mountbatten-Windsor during his time as a UK government trade envoy. The material was handed to the lord chamberlain, then Lord Peel, and has drawn fresh attention as Thames Valley Police continues an investigation into allegations of misconduct in public office.

Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested in February on suspicion of misconduct in a public office in connection with allegations that he passed sensitive government information to financier Jeffrey Epstein. He denies wrongdoing.

The emails were said to have come from the account of British businessman Jonathan Rowland, an associate of Mountbatten-Windsor, and were reportedly obtained during a dispute involving an unnamed colleague. The full contents of the archive are not publicly known, but the correspondence is understood to run up to June 2013. Buckingham Palace said it was not possible to comment because of the ongoing police inquiry.

Thames Valley Police has continued to seek information in connection with its inquiry. The focus of the investigation, as described in the report, is whether confidential government information was improperly shared while Mountbatten-Windsor held the trade envoy role.

How the archive reportedly reached the Palace

The report said Kevin Stanford obtained the cache as part of a separate dispute related to investments connected to the failed Kaupthing Bank. The emails were then forwarded to the royal household, with a 2021 document cited as indicating they were delivered to the lord chamberlain in May 2020.

Jonathan Rowland acknowledged in legal proceedings that messages had been obtained from his account, the report said. It added that authorities in Monaco and Luxembourg were also informed at the time, though details of what was shared with them were not disclosed.

Claims about confidential briefings and financial links

The report also referenced earlier claims that Mountbatten-Windsor requested confidential information from the Treasury in 2010 about the Icelandic financial crisis. Emails cited in separate reporting were said to show he shared details of the briefing with Jonathan Rowland.

Those messages were described as coming before David Rowland, Jonathan Rowland’s father, took over the Luxembourg arm of Kaupthing Bank, which later became Banque Havilland. The bank subsequently faced sanctions from regulators in the UK and the European Union.

Police have not announced any charging decision. Any further steps are expected to depend on what investigators conclude from the available material and any additional evidence they gather.