Epstein offered China meeting between Andrew and associate

The convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein offered to fix a meeting with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor for a business associate during one of his last tours in 2011 as a trade envoy, according to emails released by the US Department of Justice.

“Do you want to meet with Prince Andrew, when he is there in China next week?” Epstein appears to have written to a Hong Kong businessman Desmond Shum in May 2011. “I know he is meeting with many leaders and I thought you might want in.”

The offer of a royal engagement came more than four months after Mountbatten-Windsor claimed he had cut links with the disgraced financier. Buckingham Palace officials were trying to contain a scandal after the News of the World published a picture in February 2011 of Mountbatten-Windsor with Epstein in Central Park in New York.

Epstein was also seemingly in contact with David Stern, a friend who was advising Mountbatten-Windsor on financial matters.

Thames Valley Police are investigating Mountbatten-Windsor over a potential offence of misconduct in public office. In November 2010, Mountbatten-Windsor appears to have forwarded official reports on his trade envoy trips to Singapore, Vietnam, Shenzhen in China and Hong Kong.

Stern believed a venture involving China and Mountbatten-Windsor might help rehabilitate Epstein’s reputation. He proposed what he described as “mad thinking”, with an investment arm for European and Chinese deals, and a project for philanthropic funding for possible ventures such as a children’s hospital and university science projects. He described the proposals as “some major counter measures to this press crap”.

Epstein and Stern appear to have been working together to best exploit Mountbatten-Windsor’s access to contacts in China. Stern described it as an entity which “must feel, smell and in fact be big money and power (including access to power globally).

Stern was in constant contact with Epstein, noting on one occasion Mountbatten-Windsor had invited him to dinner with a senior official from China Life, a Chinese insurance conglomerate. Stern also sent Epstein the draft guest list of a proposed Chinese dinner at Windsor Castle in July 2012.

Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested at Sandringham on 19 February over suspicion of misconduct in public office. He was later released under investigation. Police searched Royal Lodge, his former home, and another property at Sandringham. He denies any wrongdoing

Photograph by Jie Zhao/Corbis via Getty Images