Investigations linked the £15 million sale of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s former Berkshire mansion to funds originating from a company implicated in an international bribery scheme.
Documents reviewed showed that Kazakh billionaire Timur Kulibayev used a loan from Enviro Pacific Investments to help finance the purchase of Sunninghill Park, the former royal residence sold by Andrew in 2007. Italian prosecutors later concluded that Enviro Pacific had received money connected to a corruption scheme involving oil contracts in Kazakhstan.
The payments into Enviro Pacific were made weeks before Kulibayev, the son-in-law of Kazakhstan’s then-president Nursultan Nazarbayev, bought the property for £15 million around £3 million above the asking price and an estimated £7 million above market value.
Kulibayev, one of the most powerful figures in Kazakhstan’s oil and gas sector at the time, has denied any involvement in bribery. Through his lawyers, he told said that the loan used to acquire Sunninghill Park was legitimate, commercially agreed, and later repaid with interest.
Italian court documents from 2016 and 2017, however, show prosecutors concluded that Enviro Pacific received funds from a bribery network involving Aventall, a company allegedly used to channel corrupt payments. In one case, Italian oil executive Agostino Bianchi pleaded guilty to bribing Kazakh officials, with Aventall cited as part of the payment structure. Kulibayev was not charged.
The revelations raise questions over whether Prince Andrew may have inadvertently benefited from proceeds linked to corruption and whether sufficient due diligence was conducted during the transaction. At the time, Andrew was a UK trade envoy and fourth in line to the throne.
Money-laundering expert Tom Keatinge described the deal as carrying “blatant red flags,” including the use of offshore companies, the inflated purchase price, and Kazakhstan’s widely reported corruption concerns at the time.
Despite these issues, neither the identity of the buyer nor the source of funds was publicly disclosed when the sale was completed. There was no legal requirement in 2007 to identify the owners of offshore companies purchasing UK property.
Prince Andrew declined to comment on the findings. Buckingham Palace and the Royal Family’s solicitors, Farrer & Co, also declined comment, citing confidentiality.
Margaret Hodge, the UK government’s anti-corruption champion, said the revelations were “deeply shocking” and called for a full investigation, stressing that “nobody is above the law.”
Kulibayev’s lawyers insist their client has never engaged in corruption and that his wealth was built legitimately over decades of business activity.
Erizia Rubyjeana
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