In 2010, as the aftershocks of the financial crisis rattled Dubai and crude remained the ultimate hard currency, an $8 billion cash-for-oil proposal surfaced linking the United Arab Emirates and China. Newly released U.S. Department of Justice emails now show that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, also known as Prince Andrew, agreed to help pursue the idea during an official trip to Beijing in his capacity as the UK’s special trade representative. Correspondence also shows that he shared the oil proposal via email to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
An Abu Dhabi-based banker, Terence Allen, proposed that China provide $8 billion in funding to the UAE, to be repaid over five to seven years in exports of Abu Dhabi crude. The hoped-for backer was China Investment Corporation, the state-backed sovereign wealth fund. There is no evidence that CIC was aware of or involved in the proposal, and no proof that UAE officials formally endorsed it.
The emails indicate Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor—then Duke of York, discussed the plan with Allen and banker David Stern, and that messages were forwarded to Jeffrey Epstein. At the time, Epstein had already been convicted of soliciting sex from an underage girl and was later charged in 2019 with federal sex trafficking offenses before his death in custody. Mountbatten-Windsor has consistently denied any financial or sexual wrongdoing connected to Epstein.
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According to the documents, Mountbatten-Windsor planned to use “private days” attached to an official, taxpayer-funded September 2010 trip to China to work on the proposal. Allen had stressed that any such deal would require access at the “senior most level” in Beijing.
There is no evidence that the oil swap — or other transactions floated in the same email chain — ever materialized.
Oil-backed financing is often used as a geopolitical instrument. In 2010, China was deepening its resource diplomacy across the Middle East. An $8 billion oil-for-cash line would not have been pocket change.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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