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Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor advocated for Jeffrey Epstein on an official UK state visit to the United Arab Emirates with the late Queen in 2010, according to newly released emails.

The former prince wrote to Epstein on November 24 of that year about a meeting with “Abdullah”, a reference to Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, foreign minister of the UAE.

Mountbatten-Windsor, then Duke of York, wrote: “You are in big time. He thinks you are great and would like to introduce you to Sheikh Mohammed, the Crown Prince.”

On the date in question, Mountbatten-Windsor was on a state visit to the UAE with his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, father Prince Philip and William Hague, then UK foreign secretary.

Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan was the crown prince of Abu Dhabi at the time and in 2022 became the emirate’s ruler and president of the UAE. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Sheikh Mohamed or Sheikh Abdullah.

The emails are the latest revelations that show how Mountbatten-Windsor’s relationship with Epstein blurred into his official roles as a working royal and special representative for UK trade and investment.

Mountbatten-Windsor, younger brother of King Charles III, held the trade representative role from 2001 until 2011 and was a working royal until giving up public duties following controversy over his relationship with Epstein in 2019.

Epstein was convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008. The financier completed a period of house arrest for the offence in July 2010, only months before some of the discussions in the emails.

Files released by the US Department of Justice from its investigation into Epstein have included large volumes of information relating to Mountbatten-Windsor.

The files indicate that Epstein had himself met Sheikh Abdullah shortly before the state visit involving the Queen and that he gave Mountbatten-Windsor arguments to make to encourage the foreign minister to work with him.

These were that the sheikh could trust Epstein, that he had financial expertise and that he was a “funder of extreme science”. The fourth argument was the single word “fun”.

Epstein replied to Mountbatten-Windsor’s account of the meeting with the foreign minister by suggesting that the three of them go on holiday together.

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“Ask Abdullah for a date when we can all go on vacation,” he wrote.

There is no indication such a holiday took place, although an email from December 3 2010 showed that Epstein’s assistant was seeking to set up a three-way phone call between the men.

The files also showed that Epstein visited the UAE in August 2011, with several emails referring to a planned meeting between him and the foreign minister that was cancelled at the last minute.

Epstein was found dead in a New York jail cell while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking in 2019.

There was no immediate formal response to a request for comment from the UAE’s foreign ministry.

Mountbatten-Windsor’s representatives and Buckingham Palace did not immediately respond to a request for comment.