Jeffrey Epstein sold Prince Andrew's secrets, new book claims
Compromising material on the Duke of York is alleged to have been passed to Israel's Mossad, the Saudi Arabian authorities and the Libyan intelligence services under Colonel Gaddafi.
Details of the claims are made in a new book on the prince, by author Andrew Lownie, which describes how the royal was easy prey for a 'rattlesnake' like Epstein.
Victims of the US billionaire, who took his own life in 2019, have claimed for years that Epstein kept video recordings of his high-profile friends having sex with women. No proof of any recordings has ever been made public.
Lownie, in his new book, credits a documentary by the Canadian journalist Ian Halperin as the source of allegations that Epstein sold Andrew's secrets to foreign agencies in the Middle East and Libya. The claims were 'confirmed' to Halperin by 'many in Andrew's circle', Lownie wrote.
Halperin wrote about Epstein in his own book, Controversy: Sex, Lies and Dirty Money by the World's Powerful Elite, which was published on Amazon in 2020.
In his book, Halperin claims that he spoke to Epstein in 2001 and quotes the financier at length as he discussed the Duke of York and the rest of the royal family. Epstein is quoted as telling Halperin that he had met Queen Elizabeth and introduced Princess Diana to Dodi Fayed, among other eyebrow-raising claims.
The royal family were 'completely brilliant' because they were the 'richest motherf***ers' in the world, while collecting money from British taxpayers, Epstein is alleged to have told Halperin.
The Canadian journalist, who wrote a bestselling book about Michael Jackson in 2009, has a colourful past. A September 2007 story on the website Spiked Online, seven months after the death of the model Anna Nicole Smith, said Halperin claimed to have once slept with her in front of Marilyn Monroe's grave. Halperin told The Times that the incident happened.
He added: 'When I interviewed Epstein, he made numerous sensational claims. As I've said numerous times, Epstein was a complete sociopath who could not be trusted at all, as far as I am concerned.'
Lownie told The Times that he didn't 'buy everything' in Halperin's Epstein book, but added that the information he had put into his own book had been 'verified'. He said: 'The claim about the kompromat, I've got it from other sources.'
In his book Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, Lownie wrote that 'other sources' alleged Epstein had Kremlin connections and may have been an 'agent of influence' for Vladimir Putin.
Epstein played Andrew, Lownie said. He wrote in his book: 'The prince was a useful idiot who gave him respectability, access to political leaders and business opportunities. He found him easy to exploit.'
The book also quotes US businessman, and convicted fraudster, Steven Hoffenberg, who knew Epstein, as saying that Andrew was his 'Super Bowl trophy' and Epstein planned to sell Andrew's secrets to Mossad.
Hoffenberg said: 'Andrew had a weakness for the girls and fast life, Epstein provided that fantasy.
'Andrew would then give intelligence that Epstein would give to Israel. Andrew didn't understand that he was being used.'
The Duke of York, 65, who was friendly with Epstein and his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell for years, was accused of sleeping with 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre, then known as Virginia Roberts, in London. He later settled with Giuffre in 2022, with no admissions, after she sued him in the US. Giuffre died by suicide earlier this year.
The Duke of York has been contacted for comment.
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