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David Stern accompanied Andrew on his publicly funded visit to Hong Kong and the Chinese city of Shenzhen in October 2010. The German citizen was a trusted business contact of Epstein’s at the time of the trip, which took place years before he was appointed to manage two different organisations connected to the royal family.
The visit is a key part of Thames Valley police’s scrutiny of Andrew’s time as UK special trade representative between 2001 and 2011. The force is assessing claims that Andrew forwarded reports from his trips to southeast Asia and Afghanistan to Epstein and whether there are grounds for an investigation into allegations of a criminal offence of misconduct in public office
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Stern was so close to Epstein, who he referred to as his “boss”, that he asked the paedophile to be his child’s godfather.
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Court Circular records show Andrew met the executive vice-president of Huawei, the Chinese telecoms company, and had dinner at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel with “British and Shenzhen businesses” in Shenzhen. In Hong Kong, he attended a lunch given by the British Chamber of Commerce and met the British consul-general.
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Though Andrew lost his role as trade envoy because of his ties to Epstein in early 2011, in October that year Stern wrote again to Epstein that he was going to China with “PA”, understood to be Prince Andrew. He said: “Most meetings by now are organised by me except mayors and governors,” he said. “I stay in the background/hidden. Just make the arrangements.”
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On April 23, 2017, [Stern] emailed Epstein about a dinner in May at Windsor Castle with “50 top Chinese” businessmen and women, including Pony Ma of Tencent and Yang Huiyan, who Stern described as the “wealthiest woman in Asia, age 36”.
“Plus top UK and other guests,” Stern wrote.
Stern stepped down from his role at St George’s House in November 2022. He is now based in Abu Dhabi, according to Companies House.
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