Britain’s Prince Andrew has been caught up in an alleged spying case after cultivating an “unusual degree of trust” with a Chinese man who was barred from the country on national security grounds.
The scandal-hit younger brother of King Charles III, was “prepared to enter into business activities” with the alleged spy, Britain’s High Court said in a written ruling Thursday, which referred to the Chinese national as H6. The court lifted an anonymity order protecting his identity on Monday, allowing him to be named as Yang Tengbo.
Yang had been subjected to the highest levels of national security investigation in the U.K., Thursday's ruling by judges, Charles Bourne, Stephen Smith and Stewart Eldon said, adding that British intelligence agencies feared he was attempting to gain influence over a member of the royal family.
In a statement released through his lawyers, Yang said the “widespread description of me as a ‘spy’ is entirely untrue.”
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Nonetheless, the ruling said Andrew forged a relationship of “significant degree” with Yang, marked by an “unusual degree of trust,” the court ruling said, adding that he was “prepared to enter into business activities” with the Chinese national, who he invited to his 60th birthday party in 2020.
Yang could reportedly “act on behalf” of the prince in engagements with potential partners and investors in China, the ruling said.
Andrew’s office said in a statement provided to several media outlets that he “ceased all contact with the individual after concerns were raised.” It added that he “met the individual through official channels with nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed.”
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Yang also sought connections with “prominent U.K. figures,” including politicians, which could potentially be “leveraged” for political interference by China, the court said.
Yang was considered a “risk to national security,” prompting former Secretary of State Suella Braverman to conclude in March 2023 that the ban on his entry to Britain was “justified and proportionate,” the ruling added.
Pictures of Yang alongside former British prime ministers, Theresa May and David Cameron, have been published in U.K. news outlets, although it is unclear when and where the meetings took place.
In his statement, Yang said he had “done nothing wrong or unlawful” and the concerns raised by Britain’s Home Office “are ill-founded.”
For the royal family, it marks another embarrassing revelation about Andrew, a onetime war hero who served in Britain’s Royal Navy, and he flew a number of missions during the 1982 conflict with Argentina which was fought over the remote Falkland Islands.
Andrew returned his military affiliations and royal patronages in January 2022, after his lawyers failed to persuade a U.S. judge to dismiss a civil lawsuit accusing him of sexual abuse. He later paid a substantial sum to Virginia Giuffre, who alleges she was sexually abused by the Andrew at the age of 17.
Giuffre has long alleged she was forced her in the 1990s to have sex with Andrew after she was trafficked to him by notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his confidant, the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell, 62, was jailed for 20-years after a jury concluded that she played a pivotal part in recruiting and grooming teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.
Andrew has repeatedly denied the allegation.
There have also been several high profile spy cases involving China in the U.S.
Earlier this year, Linda Sun, a former top aide to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, was charged by federal prosecutors with violating and conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, visa fraud, alien smuggling and money laundering.
Sun, 41, allegedly used her position to aid Chinese officials and covertly sharing internal documents with Beijing, prosecutors said in court papers. She was also accused of blocking Taiwanese diplomats from contacting the state government.
In return, Sun received millions of dollars in transactions for the China-based business activities of her husband Chris Hu, a job for her cousin in China, as well as tickets to various sporting and cultural events, the indictment said.
Hu was charged with money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and misuse of means of identification.
Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
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