According to a BBC investigation, Andrew received millions of pounds from Kulibayev, using funds from a company involved in corrupt activities.
Kazakh billionaire Timur Kulibayev, through his lawyers, told the BBC that he used a loan from Enviro Pacific Investments to purchase Andrew's former mansion.
The Italian prosecutor's office established that in 2007, the company was involved in receiving cash through bribery.
A few weeks after the last payment, the oligarch purchased the Sunninghill Park in Berkshire for £15 million ($20 million), using funds from Enviro Pacific.
Kulibayev, who is the son-in-law of the former president of Kazakhstan, holds important positions in the country's oil and gas sector. The BBC also learned that in one case, an Italian businessman admitted his guilt in bribing the oligarch.
Kulibayev's lawyers insist that he has never been involved in corrupt schemes and that the money used to purchase Sunninghill Park was legal.
The emergence of these facts raises questions about whether Andrew may have inadvertently benefited from criminal proceeds and whether he and his team conducted the necessary legal checks.
Money laundering expert Tom Keating, director of the Center for Finance and Security, noted that the deal had "clear warning signs" requiring thorough scrutiny to prevent the laundering of corrupt proceeds.
According to available data, Kulibayev paid £3 million more than the asking price and about £7 million above the market value of the property.
The former prince did not provide comments to the BBC. In 2009, after criticism of the deal, he stated in an interview with the Daily Telegraph: "It's not my concern once the price is paid. If it's an offer, I'm not going to question whether they overpaid me."
History of the Sale
Sunninghill Park was gifted to Andrew by the Queen as a wedding present in 1986. This two-story mansion with 12 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms was criticized for its appearance, which resembled a Tesco supermarket.
Andrew had been trying to sell the property since 2001, but unsuccessfully. In 2003, during an official visit to Bahrain, he took the opportunity to present the mansion to members of the royal families of the Persian Gulf.
However, a buyer was found through connections to Kazakhstan. In 2002, Andrew became the patron of the British-Kazakh Society, collaborating with Nursultan Nazarbayev. The prince visited Kazakhstan in 2006, and that same year, Nazarbayev met with the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
The offer to purchase Sunninghill Park came from Timur Kulibayev in 2007.
At that time, his fortune exceeded £1 billion, and he held important positions in the management of the sovereign fund Samruk-Kazyna, which controls a significant portion of the country's oil and gas sector.
Andrew met Kulibayev through Kazakh businesswoman Goga Ashkenazi, who has two children with the oligarch. Although she describes the prince as a close friend, she claims she has not had dealings with him for about 15 years.
In June 2007, Andrew and Ashkenazi were photographed at Ladies' Day at Ascot with the Queen, and that same month, contracts for the purchase of Sunninghill were exchanged. Kulibayev used his offshore company Unity Assets Corporation to complete the deal, while the seller's interests were represented by lawyers from Farrer & Co.
The deal was finalized in September 2007. In that same month, as special documents indicate, British taxpayers paid £57,000 for Andrew's charter flight to Kazakhstan on official business.
At the time the deal was conducted, the British government expressed concern about the situation in Kazakhstan. The then Minister for Europe, Geoff Hoon, informed Parliament in April 2007 that "allegations of systemic corruption" in the country were "widespread".
Despite these concerns, the identity of the buyer was not disclosed, nor was it known to either party, including Buckingham Palace.
In 2007, there were no requirements to disclose the names of offshore owners purchasing property in the UK, and Kulibayev's name only became known three years later.
Corruption Links
Issues related to the corruption of the deal began to surface as early as 2012, when the Italian prosecutor's office launched an investigation against Kulibayev.
The allegations concerned the possible use of bribes to purchase Sunninghill through Enviro Pacific Investments, which, as it is now known, partially financed the deal. However, no charges were brought against Kulibayev.
The BBC reviewed documents from several court cases in 2016 and 2017 that confirm the findings of Italian prosecutors that Enviro Pacific Investments received money through bribery schemes.
These documents were provided by the magazine L'Espresso as part of the "Caspian Conspiracies" project of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
According to the information, Enviro Pacific's connection to corruption was through the company Aventall. Italian oil magnate Agostino Bianchi pleaded guilty to bribing Kulibayev and other officials in connection with obtaining lucrative contracts, with Aventall being used to transfer bribes. Kulibayev has not been charged.
The company Aventall, managed by Massimo Guidotti, was also named as a "middleman" in corruption schemes.
According to court materials, he created a rating system assessing the influence of Kazakh oligarchs. In 2009, he awarded Kulibayev the maximum rating of five stars. During questioning, Guidotti denied that he distributed bribes.
In a second case in Milan, prosecutors reported that Aventall made payments of "allegedly corrupt nature" to Enviro Pacific Investments, which issued the loan for the purchase of Sunninghill.
Prosecutors claimed that $6.5 million (£3.27 million) was promised, but they could only confirm $1.5 million (£755,000) in payments. The last of these was made in April 2007, two months before the contracts for the purchase of Sunninghill were signed.
The prosecution also noted that "open sources" indicate a connection between Enviro Pacific and Kulibayev. However, the investigation in Milan was closed in January 2017, as the prosecution could not link the payments to specific contracts or identify the officials who received the money.
Kulibayev's lawyers told the BBC that he denies receiving bribes and has no connection to the contracts, nor is he the subject of an investigation in Italy. They added that Kulibayev "was not involved in and was unaware of any 'corruption scheme' involving Bianchi or Guidotti".
They also claim that Kulibayev never owned or controlled Enviro Pacific, and that this company never had assets in his name. When asked about the owner of the company, the lawyers cited confidentiality.
Nevertheless, the lawyers confirmed to the BBC that their client "received a loan from Enviro Pacific in 2007 for commercial reasons and on market terms" to finance the purchase of Sunninghill.
This implies that the company allegedly involved in corruption was also involved in the deal with Andrew.
The lawyers did not deny the information about the £6 million loan and noted that Kulibayev repaid it with interest.
They assert that the funds used to purchase Sunninghill were entirely legal and that all necessary checks were conducted at the time. According to the lawyers, Kulibayev paid £15 million to secure the purchase, as there were competitors.
Problematic Aspects
After Kulibayev purchased Sunninghill, it remained empty for many years and was demolished in 2016. A new mansion with 14 bedrooms was built in its place, but it also remained unoccupied.
There is no evidence that Andrew knew about the origins of the funds used by Kulibayev to purchase the property.
Nevertheless, the deal had many aspects that could have raised concerns among Andrew's lawyers, indicating the possibility of receiving part of the money through corrupt means.
These include:
- Concerns of the British government regarding "systemic corruption in Kazakhstan" at the time
- Kulibayev's position as a public official and son-in-law of the President of Kazakhstan
- The use of complex offshore structures linked to multiple companies and loan agreements without clear explanations
- Alleged inflated price
- Lack of transparency regarding the identity of the buyer
"Regardless of who you are — a member of the royal family, an oligarch, or a billionaire, those who act on your behalf in any real estate transactions must be mindful of the legal and reputational risks associated with offshore investments in UK real estate," said Keating, a money laundering expert.
He also noted that since 2004, lawyers have been required to conduct deep checks on the sources of funding, including identifying the owners of offshore companies.
Margaret Hodge, the government's anti-corruption representative, expressed shock at the BBC revelations, adding that "proceeds from criminal activity" could have been involved in the controversial deal.
"These allegations must be thoroughly investigated by both Parliament and the relevant authorities. No one should be above the law," she emphasized.
Both Buckingham Palace and Andrew declined to comment.
The royal family's lawyers, Farrer & Co, also declined to comment, citing confidentiality. Kulibayev's lawyer confirmed that all necessary procedures were followed at the time of the deal and that Kulibayev's notoriety as a buyer was known.
After Nazarbayev's resignation in 2019, the new government of Kazakhstan initiated legal proceedings in Switzerland to recover millions from those accused of corruption. The bribery scheme in Italy, allegedly involving Kulibayev, is part of this case, although the oligarch himself is not a defendant.
In early 2025, rumors emerged of Kulibayev negotiating a payment of $1 billion (£741 million) to the government of Kazakhstan in the context of an investigation into his assets accumulated during his father-in-law's presidency.
Kulibayev's lawyers claim that his fortune was earned honestly over decades of business, that no investigations are being conducted against him, and that any suggestions of negotiations for compensation for illegal assets are unfounded.
