Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were staying at a mansion linked to a lawyer whose clients include a sanctioned Russian when they left the UK in 2019, according to .
The couple spent weeks in a $14 million home on Vancouver Island, Canada around Christmas that year, but refused to reveal the identity of their lavish host.
Company documents unearthed by show that the Mille Fleurs mansion was owned at the time by a British Virgin Islands company run by a British lawyer whose clients include dozens of Russian oligarchs and a former Russian Deputy Prime Minister added to the US and UK. sanctions list last week.
Questions about the identity of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who are rumored to be Russian benefactors, have taken on new significance following a string of sanctions against Putin’s allies following his invasion of Ukraine.
On Monday, the ex-royal couple posted their support for Ukraine on their charity Archewell Instagram profile, writing “We support the people of Ukraine” and the hashtags #stopwar, #standwithukraine, #closethesky and #sendnatotoukraine.
But when asked who gave the Sussexes access to the eight-bedroom waterfront property for two months for their 2019 Christmas holiday, Harry and Meghan kept quiet.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were staying at a mansion linked to a law firm whose clients include a sanctioned Russian when they left the UK in 2019, according to . In 2020, the couple gets off the plane in Canada.
The couple spent weeks in a $14 million home on Vancouver Island, Canada but refused to reveal the identity of their generous host.
On Monday, the ex-royal couple posted their support for Ukraine on their charity Archewell Instagram profile, writing “We support the people of Ukraine” and the hashtags #stopwar, #standwithukraine, #closethesky and #sendnatotoukraine.
Neighbors told that Mille Fleurs was owned by a secretive Russian billionaire who has yet to report his property to the British Columbia registry despite a new transparency law requiring landowners to do so.
has learned that the Vancouver Island mansion is owned by JEMC Management Limited, a firm in the opaque tax haven of the British Virgin Islands (BVI).
The only clue to the ultimate owner is the firm’s business address in the British Virgin Islands: Tulloch & Co, Mayfair, Central London, the law firm of British lawyer Alastair Tulloch (pictured).
The only clue to the ultimate owner is the firm’s business address in the British Virgin Islands: Tulloch & Co, Mayfair, Central London, the law firm of British lawyer Alastair Tulloch.
Five-story townhouse Tulloch & Co. is the registered address of 40 UK companies and many other offshore firms in secret tax havens, while Tulloch himself appears on the files of 111 current and former UK firms, some of which are owned by 28 companies. identified Russian and Eastern European oligarchs and business tycoons.
One of Tulloch’s previous clients was former Putin aide Igor Shuvalov.
Shuvalov, who served as first deputy prime minister from 2012 to 2018, was placed on the State Department’s sanctions list last week as a member of Putin’s inner circle.
The UK has also placed a complete ban on Shuvalov’s assets, calling him “the core of Putin’s inner circle.”
Tulloch is known among the Russian elite as a London lawyer for super-rich billionaires and well-connected politicians, using complex corporate structures in secret jurisdictions around the world.
The 66-year-old managed to stay mostly out of the public eye until revealed his connection to Harry and Meghan’s country mansion in 2020, despite running the companies of at least 28 Russian and Eastern European oligarchs and business moguls. . as well as firms associated with Elton John and Kylie Minogue.
One of Tulloch’s previous clients was former Putin aide Igor Shuvalov (left, with Putin). Shuvalov, who served as first deputy prime minister from 2012 to 2018, was put on the State Department’s sanctions list last week as a member of Putin’s inner circle.
Another of his Russian-connected clients is Andrey Vavilov (left), a former deputy finance minister and Russian secretary of state who has been accused of embezzling $231 million from government funds. He denies this accusation. Neighbors of the Vancouver Island mansion claimed that the owner was Israeli-Russian billionaire Yuri Milner (right), who denied this.
Music producer David Foster told how his wife Catherine McPhee discovered the Duke and Duchess needed a private place for their first Christmas getaway. McPhee (right) went to school with Meghan (left) in Los Angeles and they played theater together as children.
Another of his Russian-connected clients is Andrey Vavilov, a former deputy finance minister and Russian secretary of state who has been accused of embezzling $231 million from state funds.
The accusation was made by the then President of the Russian Central Bank, Sergei Dubinin, in 1997. At the time, Vavilov denied wrongdoing and said that the multi-million dollar transactions were legal, normal, and approved by his superiors. Tulloch & Co. previously told that Vavilov was not accused by Russian prosecutors of any criminal behavior.
Vavilov is not subject to US or UK sanctions.
Documents from offshore companies leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) provided further evidence of Tulloch’s ties to top Moscow politicians.
Neighbors of the Vancouver Island mansion have previously claimed Israeli-Russian billionaire Yuri Milner is the owner, who has denied this.
A spokesman for Milner told that “neither Yuri Milner, nor any of the family members, nor any person associated with him or his family” owned the property, although he had previously stayed in it.
Milner, one of Tulloch’s clients, bought over eight percent of Facebook and five percent of Twitter with cash from Kremlin-controlled banks.
Tulloch has close business ties to Milner, and his law firm previously served as the business address for the UK and US divisions of the oligarch’s flagship investment firm, DST.
Canadian music producer David Foster told that he is friends with the owner of the mansion and that he and his wife, Meghan’s school friend Katherine McPhee, organized the royal couple’s Christmas stay.
Harry posed with Archie in this adorable photo while staying at the Vancouver Island mansion during Christmas 2019.
In a house called Mille Fleurs (above), the royal couple completed their plan to cut back on their royal duties and move to the US.
The property was purchased around 2010 by Bernadette Wolfswinkel, the ex-wife of disgraced Arizona real estate tycoon Conley Wolfswinkel, who was convicted of bank fraud and accused of owing US taxpayers $2 billion.
Luxury property: French country mansion was auctioned by Sotheby’s in 2012 and sold in 2014.
Grandiose: The 11,416-square-foot main house with five bedrooms and eight bathrooms and the 2,349-square-foot guest cottage with three beds and two bathrooms.
Foster said he also agreed with Milner to rent the house for a few weeks in 2014, but insisted the Russian billionaire was not the owner.
A spokesperson for Milner told : “Neither Yuri Milner, nor any family member, nor any person associated with him or his family, owns this Canadian home or JEMC Management Limited. However, Mr. Milner rented the house for a short period of time about five years ago and is not currently renting it.”
In 2019, the government of British Columbia passed a law requiring property owned by offshore companies to disclose its true owners in a public registry.
Despite the requirements of the Land Ownership Transparency Law, the owner of Mille Fleurs has not yet submitted an application to the state register.
British Columbia has postponed the application deadline to November 2022.
In a statement to , Tulloch & Co. said they were “an easy target for misinformation”, adding that UK lawyers’ rules “do not allow us to comment on clients’ cases”, but that the firm “fully complies with all UK laws”. laws and regulations.’
The firm said Tulloch represented two British charities, the Oxford Russia Foundation and the Khodorkovsky Foundation, which were ordered by the Russian government to cease operations in Russia.
“The press articles mistakenly suggest that we are acting in the interests of the closest circles of the Russian government elite; that this is not true is evident from the fact that Alastair Tulloch himself was targeted by the Russian government,” the company said.
“We are shocked and appalled by the invasion of Ukraine; we condemn the use of violence and the violation of international law. We express our deepest condolences to all those whose lives were so tragically affected by these events, including our many clients and friends in Ukraine.”
A spokeswoman for Harry and Meghan did not respond to requests for comment.