Princess Beatrice And Princess Eugenie Have Been Named In A Fraud Case Tied To Their Father Prince Andrew
Oh, those British royals – so relatable! I mean, who of us hasn’t found ourselves at one time or another caught up in our disgraced father’s alleged million-dollar fraud scheme involving a Turkish millionaire and our mom, Duchess Fergie? Wait, I only see Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie raising their hands. Huh, I guess that’s not exactly a common example of family bonding time. But it’s currently a thing that Bea and Genie get to talk about with their dad. Luckily, their dad already has a comprehensive relationship with his lawyers, so hopefully the Princesses can get this sorted out before their parents’ next money scandal.
According to People magazine, Andrew and Fergie’s kids have found themselves dragged into some kind of alleged money laundering-style wedding gift scheme. Yes, it’s that convoluted. Then again, should any of us be that surprised to see the York family name tied to some kind of shady international shell game? Exactly. A Turkish millionaire named Nebahat Evyap Isbilen has taken her case to the High Court, and she claims she was tricked by her financial advisor, Selman Turk, who ended up transferring a ton of Nebahat’s money into Prince Andrew’s bank account. According to Nebahat’s court documents, she says that more than $1.3 million was transferred to Andrew, nearly $300,000 was transferred to Fergie, and almost $33,000 was given to Eugenie.
Part of Andrew’s alleged payment was a transfer of nearly $985,000, which Nebahat says happened just days after her financial advisor won a prize at Prince Andrew’s [email protected] Shark Tank-style entrepreneur competition on November 6, 2019 (that event took place a little over a week before Andrew’s PR disaster of a BBC interview, in which he claimed not to know Virginia Giuffre). Nebahat claims that she believed the cash transferred after the [email protected] win was to secure her a new passport after she was forced to flee her country (where her husband is imprisoned). But when she asked for a confirmation on the alleged cash-for-passport situation, she was met with a metaphorical Price is Right losing horn, and was allegedly informed that the money that was transferred to Prince Andrew was a wedding gift for Princess Beatrice and her soon-to-be husband Edoardo Mozzi, who finally got hitched in July 2020. But, Beatrice didn’t get to blow nearly a million-dollar cash wedding gift on Le Creuset casseroles, stand-mixers, and swirly-lettered wall art that reads, “Always Kiss Me Goodnight.”
When Andrew was contacted about the payment by Isbilen’s lawyers in March 2021, he returned the £750,000, according to court documents.
Neither Beatrice nor Eugenie have any idea who Nebahat or Selman are. Eugenie released a statement regarding the cash that was dumped into her account, and she claims that she was under the impression it was a gift from a close family friend, with the expressed purpose of helping Eugenie throw her mother Fergie a big fancy 60th birthday party (Fergie turned 60 in October 2019).
“On 31 March 2022 I received a letter from solicitors Peters & Peters representing their client Nebahat Evyap Isbilen in her claim against a Mr. Selman Turk, and various companies. I know neither Mrs Isbilen nor Mr Turk (nor any other details of the claim) and I was surprised to receive this letter, which asked me to explain two payments made to my bank account in October 2019, which I understood to be gifts from a long-standing family friend to assist with the cost of a surprise party for my mother, Sarah, Duchess of York’s sixtieth birthday.
In early October 2019 I had received a call from our family friend saying that he wanted to make a financial contribution towards my mother’s birthday party to assist with the catering costs. I suggested that any contribution could be made directly to the caterers, but in the event provided my account details to which two payments were made totalling £25,000, which I then transferred on to the company organising my mother’s party.”
Eugenie ends by saying she’s currently got her lawyers on it. Fergie also released a statement, but hers basically just said that she’s “concerned” about the allegations against Mr. Selman Turk and that she previously had no idea about the allegations. But anyone with even the slightest knowledge of Fergie’s past financial choices could probably have smelled something fishy regarding her relationship with Selman Turk. According to People, Fergie was working as a brand ambassador for a green energy company called Pegasus, which wanted to pay her $300,000 fee in installments. Fergie wanted it all at once. So Selman stepped in and allegedly offered to give her the money personally. via People:
Fergie’s representative said that Turk, who was a banker who had been introduced to Sarah by her ex-husband, stepped in and said he could pay her in the interim and he would take on the debt from Pegasus.
Prince Andrew had no comment on the situation, and he pulled the standard family “We don’t talk about ongoing legal issues” excuse the Royal Family has been known to employ nearly every time they find themselves in some sort of legal mess. At least Andrew can laugh about this with his older brother Prince Charles over gin and scones. Because Charles himself has also been recently dragged into an alleged donations-for-citizenship thing.
It was recently revealed in a new biography that Queen Elizabeth “struggled” with the fact that three out of her four kids ended up divorced. Someone needs to give The Queen some perspective on the situation. Divorce is nothing to be ashamed of, and it’s nothing compared to the fact that one of her kids seems to keep finding himself in some truly embarrassing legal battles involving scammy-sounding money situations. I mean, a divorce happens once. This is starting to feel like an annual thing where you’d begrudgingly celebrate with balloons and cake. Happy Andrew’s Latest Lawsuit Day!
Pic: INSTAR