Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor sold his £15m Berkshire mansion to billionaire
An investigation has raised new questions about the 2007 sale of Prince Andrew’s former Berkshire home, Sunninghill Park, which was bought for £15 million by Kazakh businessman Timur Kulibayev, several million pounds above its asking price.
The property, a wedding gift from Queen Elizabeth II to Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, was sold through an offshore structure after remaining on the market for years. According to claims highlighted by BBC Panorama, part of the purchase was funded through Enviro Pacific Investments, a British Virgin Islands-based firm later alleged by Italian prosecutors to have received money linked to bribery in Kazakhstan’s oil sector.
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Kulibayev has consistently denied all allegations of corruption, describing them as “politically motivated,” and has never been charged with any criminal offence. His lawyers insist he has never owned or controlled Enviro Pacific and that the company never held assets on his behalf.
Italian court records show that oil executive Agostino Bianchi pleaded guilty in 2017 to bribing three Kazakh officials, including Kulibayev, in exchange for lucrative oil contracts. While Kulibayev was not charged, prosecutors later alleged that one of the firms used to channel bribes, Aventall, made payments of a “corrupt nature” to Enviro Pacific. The Milan proceedings were ultimately dismissed after prosecutors failed to link the payments to specific contracts or identify beneficiaries conclusively.
There is no evidence that Andrew knew the source of the funds used to buy Sunninghill Park. The house was purchased via Unity Assets Corporation, an offshore trust. In 2010, Andrew said, “It’s not my business, once the price is paid. If that is the offer, I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth and suggest they have overpaid me.”
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However, money laundering expert Tom Keatinge said advisers involved in the transaction should have examined warning signs. “Regardless of who you are – royal, oligarch or billionaire – those acting for you in any property transaction should be alert to the risks, both legal and reputational, inherent in offshore investments in UK property,” he told Panorama. Under UK regulations introduced in 2004, lawyers were required to conduct checks on the source of funds in property deals.
At the time of the sale, Kulibayev was a powerful figure in Kazakhstan with close ties to then-president Nursultan Nazarbayev, his father-in-law. Andrew had professional contact with Nazarbayev, visiting Kazakhstan several times as a UK trade envoy and attending social events, including a goose-hunting trip in 2008.
Sunninghill Park, often mocked for its design and nicknamed “SouthYork,” was later demolished by Kulibayev and replaced with a 14-bedroom mansion that reportedly remains empty, Bloomberg had reported.
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Kulibayev’s legal team has branded the BBC’s reporting “defamatory” and says the purchase was “a straightforward commercial transaction,” adding that the loan involved was legitimate, fully documented, and repaid with interest. Buckingham Palace and Andrew’s former legal advisers declined to comment, citing client confidentiality.
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