Royal Links Used to Threaten Worker at Ferguson-Linked Firm

Sarah Ferguson’s close friend and business partner Manuel Fernandez used his palace connections to threaten a worker with jail, according to a recording obtained by the BBC.

The worker at Fernandez’s failed lifestyle app vVoosh was told police would investigate him for allegedly putting “royal security” at risk by hacking emails.

Ferguson was an investor and “ambassador” for the business, and Fernandez used this connection to impress investors and staff, the worker claims.

Fernandez said he “strongly disputed” allegations about his conduct and the financial position of vVoosh. Ferguson’s representatives did not reply.

Ferguson was regularly photographed with the Essex soldier-turned-businessman from 2015 to 2017, but she denied they were romantically involved, telling a newspaper they were “friends and business partners.”

vVoosh, like many tech start-ups, was based in London’s Shoreditch area and planned a social networking service similar to Facebook. It collapsed last year without launching a product.

Ferguson owned about 1% of the shares and loaned the company roughly £50,000, according to company filings.

Recordings, letters and WhatsApp messages from a former insider raise further questions about Ferguson’s associates and how much she knew about Fernandez’s use, and alleged misuse, of his royal connections.

The senior staff member, identified as “Alex,” worked at vVoosh for about six years and, like many colleagues, was engaged as a contractor.

In June 2017, he received a WhatsApp message from Fernandez saying Fernandez had been called to “an urgent meeting at B Palace regarding the company because of the VIP shareholders.”

Alex was asked to meet Fernandez the following day.

The company was in financial trouble, and Alex said he was owed thousands in unpaid invoices, so he recorded the meeting on a mobile phone in his jacket pocket to “protect himself.”

At the meeting’s start, Alex’s other phone was forcibly taken. A man identifying himself as “Mark,” who refused to give his surname, said the device belonged to the company and would not let Alex recover personal data.

“I was so scared because this guy was, like, three times my size,” Alex told the BBC.

The BBC established that “Mark” is former soldier turned security adviser Mark Harry. He said he understood “that this matter was handled by the appropriate authorities at the time. I strongly dispute the allegations made.”

In the recording, Fernandez and Harry threatened Alex with jail for alleged email hacking, clearly implying the targeted emails belonged to Ferguson. Fernandez said Alex breached the “Palace’s confidentiality agreement.”

Alex denies hacking, saying a company email account was set up for Ferguson but because she never activated it, messages to her were forwarded to a common inbox.

Fernandez and Harry continued threatening Alex. Fernandez said he was in “so deep… he has no idea” and in a “world of pain,” and faced two years in jail under the Computer Misuse Act.

The two said other company employees were also involved and facing prison sentences, including one “facing eight years.”

Fernandez told the BBC: “I strongly dispute a number of allegations that have been made concerning both my conduct and financial position in relation to the company.

“Certain concerns regarding former contractors and internal data/security matters were previously reported to the appropriate authorities and reviewed by legal advisers. To my knowledge, no action was taken against me arising from those allegations.”

In the meeting, Fernandez did not give Harry’s name, saying only that Harry represented “some certain VIPs.”

Harry said the “Palace… will not stand for it, OK?” He said the Palace “don’t investigate it, or should I say we don’t investigate it, that is done by Scotland Yard. And I tell you now it then becomes number one priority.”

He told Alex he had put “the integrity and the security of our royal family and any other associated VIPs in jeopardy.”

Harry did not respond to the BBC’s question about whether he had any involvement in royal security or Ferguson’s security. Ferguson, having divorced Prince Andrew, had no official royal role.

Alex was told to co-operate in exchange for “lenience” but said he wanted to seek legal advice.

After the meeting, he said a passing policeman asked if he was OK. “I was just standing in the street crying because I had just been threatened, you know? I didn’t know what to do,” he told the BBC.

Alex filed a police report, but the Metropolitan Police decided not to bring a case. Lawyers advised that legal action over his unpaid fees would cost more than the bills were worth.

In October that year, Alex was arrested and interviewed for three hours for alleged email hacking. No charges were brought. Alex believes Fernandez followed through on threats to go to police.

The Met Police said it could not comment, and Buckingham Palace said it could not comment on Ferguson’s affairs.

Alex continued receiving letters from vVoosh’s law firm alleging data theft and questioning his work quality until March 2018. He denies the claims, and the cases went no further. The BBC is unaware of any prosecutions or court cases from this incident.

Alex said Ferguson was a regular visitor to vVoosh headquarters, and Fernandez claimed to be a regular visitor to Royal Lodge, the 30-room Windsor mansion where Ferguson lived with former husband Andrew. Fernandez was there for Christmas one year, Alex said.

They discussed asking Ferguson’s daughters with Andrew, Beatrice and Eugenie, to act as company spokespeople, according to Alex. The sisters visited the office, but the idea went no further.

At one point, Fernandez went on a Mediterranean holiday with Ferguson, Alex said, leaving the company without leadership and unable to pay invoices.

Alex believes Fernandez used Ferguson’s name to approach investors and that she must have known how he ran the company. “She must have known. If she didn’t know, she was deluding herself, because she was there,” Alex said. “When you spend any time with him, you know what he is like.”

Ferguson’s friendships with men have long been a source of embarrassment and controversy.

Her relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein caused scandal last year after she called him a “supreme friend” in 2011, following his conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution.

Files published by the U.S. Department of Justice show she relied heavily on Epstein for help when facing bankruptcy in 2009.

vVoosh collapsed last year without launching a product. The administrator’s report said it raised more than £9 million from investors, including £1 million in government tax credits.

Administrators are pursuing a former director, believed to be Fernandez, for £324,609 they say he owes the company, though the matter is in dispute.

Fernandez is believed to have left the U.K., with some reports saying he moved to Italy. Property belonging to the company was recently located in a storage facility in Rome, owned by a former director, the latest administrator’s report said. They judged it not worth recovering.

The administrators also wrote that they submitted a report on directors’ conduct to the Department for Business under the Company Directors Disqualification Act.