{"id":415084,"date":"2026-02-08T19:27:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T19:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/415084\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T19:27:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T19:27:07","slug":"andrew-shared-confidential-information-with-epstein-as-trade-envoy-files-suggest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/415084\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew shared confidential information with Epstein as trade envoy, files suggest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew told BBC Newsnight in 2019 that he last saw Epstein in New York in early December 2010 to tell the disgraced financier he was breaking off the friendship.<\/p>\n

However, on Christmas Eve that year, he emailed Epstein a confidential briefing on investment opportunities in the reconstruction of Helmand Province, Afghanistan, which was overseen at the time by British armed forces and funded by UK government money.<\/p>\n

By this time, Epstein was already a convicted sex offender<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sir Vince Cable, who was then business secretary, said: “I was unaware of Andrew… sharing information about investment opportunities [in Afghanistan] before, this is the first I’ve heard of it.”<\/p>\n

In a further email dated 9 February 2011, Andrew suggests Epstein might invest in a private equity firm he visited a week before.<\/p>\n

Official terms of reference for trade envoys state that they “are not civil servants”, adding: “However, the role of a Trade Envoy carries with it a duty of confidentiality in relation to information received. This may include sensitive, commercial, or political information shared about relevant markets\/visits.<\/p>\n

“This duty of confidentiality will continue to apply after the expiry of their term of office. In addition, the Official Secrets Acts 1911 and 1989 will apply.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrew told BBC Newsnight in 2019 that he last saw Epstein in New York in early December 2010…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-415084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}