GLEN KEOGH looks at the life of Oleg Firer: Hosted by Prince Andrew at Royal Lodge, the man who was expelled by nation where Charles still reigns

As any aspiring entrepreneur should know, it pays to be diligent when seeking out potential business partners.

To make one mistake might be considered unfortunate. Any more would border on naivety.

But for a senior member of the Royal Family with a tarnished reputation to find himself involved with two men recently named by separate Commonwealth countries as alleged threats to national security appears to border on the ridiculous.

Today the Mail reveals exclusive details of Prince Andrew’s negotiations with a new business venture which appears to straddle the globe and connects a former ambassador to Russia and an alleged agent working on behalf of China’s United Front Work Department.

The prince has met with Oleg Firer, Grenada’s former ambassador to Moscow, who in 2023 was stopped at immigration on arrival at the Caribbean island – where he had held his diplomatic post for six years – and pulled to one side.

Over the shoulder of the island’s chief immigration officer, who detained him for two hours, he noticed his name on a computer screen. Alongside the words ‘watch-list status’ he saw an encircled ‘X’.

Mr Firer surrendered his diplomatic passport and he was ordered to return to London, his city of departure. Despite Grenada being his ‘second home’ and a place where he still owns property, he has not returned since. He was later informed that the country’s minister of immigration had assessed him as an alleged ‘threat to national security’.

Part of the reason behind this, according to a judgment released last year, was an allegation of ‘serious financial impropriety’, where the government of Grenada was left facing a $1 million (£800,000) bill for the rental of the Grenadian embassy in Moscow.

Oleg Firer, Grenada’s former ambassador to Moscow with Vladimir Putin

Prince Andrew (pictured) met with Oleg Firer, Grenada’s former ambassador to Moscow, who in 2023 was stopped at immigration on arrival at the Caribbean island

Oleg Firer was refused entry to Grenada in 2023 despite it being his ‘second home’

Mr Firer had opened the embassy himself and claimed to have covered all of the costs involved in its operation. Even when he was stripped of his diplomatic post in 2022 when the government changed, he allegedly continued to host events at the building on Povarskaya Street, a short walk from the Kremlin, according to court documents. He denies any wrongdoing and believes the decision to bar him was politically motivated.

In 2023, Grenada’s citizenship-by-investment programme, which allows visa-free travel to the UK and across Europe for those who can stump up $235,000 (£190,000), issued a public notice that Mr Firer was not a licensed marketing agent for the scheme after rumours spread that he was advising wealthy Russians on how to obtain passports. Mr Firer denies disseminating information about the programme in a commercial or private capacity.

Born in Odesa, now modern-day Ukraine, in 1977, Mr Firer and his family fled to the US as refugees when he was 12 and they settled in Brooklyn, New York. He founded payments processing company Unified Payments and went on to hold senior roles at companies in the technology and finance sectors.

Following his rather ignominious departure from the island of which he claimed to hold dual citizenship (he didn’t, a judge has ruled) one might have expected Mr Firer to shrink away. 

Instead, the self-styled ‘international relations executive, diplomat, leader and visionary’ did what many wealthy businessmen linked to controversial regimes have done in years gone by. He cosied up to Prince Andrew.

Last summer, shortly after Mr Firer’s lawyers had appeared at the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court to appeal against the decision to refuse him entry to Grenada – an island nation of which King Charles remains head of state – he and his business partner, entrepreneur Adnan Sawadi, met the duke at Royal Lodge, his home in Windsor Great Park.

Andrew needed money. Following his disastrous 2019 BBC Newsnight interview regarding his relationships with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and allegations that he had sex with Virginia Giuffre when she was 17, something he has always strongly denied, business opportunities had dried up.

In particular, Andrew had been forced to step away from his beloved Pitch@Palace vehicle for investing in start-ups. It was set up in 2014 as a not-for-profit but then launched overseas where it operated commercially. 

Until last autumn, King Charles was giving his brother an annual allowance which may have contributed towards the upkeep of the 30-room Royal Lodge where Andrew lives with his ex-wife Sarah, the Duchess of York.

It was becoming clear, however, that Charles would not be financing the listed property indefinitely – yet Andrew was refusing to downsize in a move dubbed the ‘siege of Royal Lodge’.

Mr Firer and his business partner, entrepreneur Adnan Sawadi, met the duke at Royal Lodge, his home in Windsor Great Park (pictured) last summer

Prince Andrew had been forced to step away from his beloved Pitch@Palace vehicle for investing in start-ups

A source close to the discussions said Mr Firer and Mr Sawadi knew the prince’s royal status still dazzled in certain countries, despite his reputation in Britain being destroyed over his friendship with Epstein.

They discussed their investment vehicle, Waterberg Stirling, and an opportunity for the company to take over Pitch@Palace Global’s former network via its stake in the Dutch firm Startupbootcamp, which also invests in start-ups.

However this connection also had other benefits; with the firm seemingly happy to use the prince’s royal status to open doors overseas.

In December, Mr Sawadi wrote to the Chinese ambassador to the UAE describing Waterberg Stirling as a ‘global investment company established as a vehicle for HRH’s [Andrew’s] current and future engagement’. 

Thanks to the duke, it maintained ‘the top-level support, endorsement, cooperation and alignment of governments and royal families across the world, including the UK, China and the Middle East (specifically Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain)’, according to the note.

The letter went on to describe Waterberg Stirling’s investment opportunities in China and its ‘priority deals’.

No mention was made of the firm’s wish to take over Pitch@Palace.

When asked why the firm was being portrayed as an investment vehicle for the duke in official correspondence with an ambassador, Mr Sawadi said ‘it was designed to appeal to Chinese stakeholders’ and the ‘sales pitch’ had to be about the duke if ‘they wanted to ambassador to act on their behalf’.

The mystery surrounding the duke’s role in the fund deepened last night.

When the Mail asked whether he was aware how his role and status were being used by the Waterberg Stirling board, a spokesman referred to Mr Sawadi’s explanation. In any event, the duke is particularly close to one member of the firm’s board: Dominic Hampshire, a former Army captain and equerry to the Duke of Kent.

To pursue opportunities in China, Waterberg Stirling, according to the letter, had relied on Andrew.

It said he introduced them to Chris Yang, a Chinese anglophile who had called Britain his ‘second home’ for 20 years.

Prince Andrew with alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo

Mr Yang, who also used the name Tengbo, had wormed his way to the top of British society. He had met Andrew in 2014 at St James’s Palace thanks to an introduction by former Formula One tycoon Sir Ron Dennis.

Having initially studied at York University on arrival in the UK in 2002, he went on to found a consultancy firm, Hampton Group, which advised on business deals in China.

There was one alleged problem with Mr Yang. In 2023, he, too, had been designated a national security risk. He was banned from Britain by then-home secretary Suella Braverman when the security services raised concerns that he may have been spying on behalf of China’s United Front Work Department.

Andrew denies introducing Mr Yang to Waterberg Stirling, and said the introduction was facilitated by Mr Hampshire.

Court documents released as part of Mr Yang’s appeal to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission over the decision to bar him from the country show that he and Andrew had developed a close relationship.

Judges assessing the case said he had won an ‘unusual degree of trust from a senior member of the Royal Family who was prepared to enter into business activities with him’.

For five months, Mr Hampshire spoke to Mr Yang ‘almost daily’, the documents showed. But by December, Waterberg Stirling had reservations about Mr Yang’s Hampton Group and its assistance in China.

It turned to the duke for help, asking him to speak to the Chinese ambassador to the UK, Zheng Zeguang, ‘at a diplomatic level to identify a new business partner’.

Mr Sawadi said the duke agreed to do this ‘because of his commercial arrangement with Startupbootcamp, not because he had a financial agreement with Waterberg Stirling’.

Following their lunch, also understood to have been attended by Mr Hampshire, the aide – who left his employment at the Royal Household in 2022 – messaged the ambassador’s team.

In the note, seen by the Mail, Mr Hampshire, describing the duke as ‘His Royal Highness’, said: ‘I hope I made it clear to His Excellency [the ambassador] and he now fully understands the difficult position that my principal [Andrew] and I are in. I hope the ambassador can guide all parties to a successful conclusion.

He added: ‘Ultimately, irrespective of the issues, we seek His Excellency’s continued support and endorsement of what we are trying to achieve.’

Until last autumn, King Charles was giving his brother Prince Andrew (pictured) an annual allowance which may have contributed towards the upkeep of the 30-room Royal Lodge

He said Mr Sawadi was meeting another Chinese ambassador to discuss other opportunities, adding: ‘It is important to my principal and me that His Excellency support this.’

Last night, Mr Hampshire said he was speaking to the ambassador on the duke’s behalf as his ‘close confidante, supporting him to pursue appropriate and sustainable business opportunities’.

Despite numerous warnings, it appears Andrew is unable to learn from his mistakes, as Waterberg Stirling and the Chinese spy scandal are far from the only occasions he has courted controversy over the questionable company he keeps.

In 2010, it emerged his former mansion, Sunninghill Park, in Ascot, Berkshire, had been purchased by Timur Kulibayev, the son-in-law of the president of Kazakhstan. Mr Kulibayev paid £3 million over the £12 million asking price in 2007, even though there were no other bidders.

The duke also pursued a relationship with Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of former Libya dictator Muammar Gaddafi, and has accepted hospitality from Tarek Kaituni, a convicted Libyan gun smuggler. Mr Kaituni helped to broker secret meetings for the duke with Gaddafi and attended the Duchess of York’s 60th birthday party.

Whatever the truth around Andrew’s involvement in the new multi-billion-pound investment vehicle, he is bound to be kept abreast of its success or failure – his close friend Mr Hampshire has vowed to continue in his role as a board member of Waterberg Stirling.