Andrew’s aide set up firm with Chinese ‘billionaire’

Amanda Thirsk left the duke’s employ after his disastrous BBC interview - which she helped to arrange, but within months she had set up an offshore company with a Chinese businesswoman.

Prince Andrew and Amanda Thirsk at Ascot Racecourse in England in 2018. Thirsk’s lawyers declined to provide comment but emphasised that there could be no allegations of impropriety against her. Picture: Getty

After the Duke of York gave an interview to BBC’s Newsnight in which he said he did not regret his friendship with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, he was forced to step back from official duties.

Amanda Thirsk, his aide, who had helped to arrange the BBC interview, left soon afterwards. With no official role, there was little justification for Prince Andrew to keep staff funded by the taxpayer.

Two dramatisations of Andrew’s fall, on Amazon and Netflix, portrayed Thirsk as a hapless courtier. It was thought that she might prefer to keep a low profile - but The Times has learnt that within months of leaving she had set up an offshore company with Nani Wang, a Chinese businesswoman.

Papers at Companies House show that Thirsk and Wang are the only directors of Nash Ventures, a company established in the British Virgin Islands. The incorporation documents were signed in June 2020, seven months after Newsnight. That October, the women set up Nash Ventures (UK).

There is no suggestion that Wang is associated with Yang Tengbo, the Chinese businessman and suspected spy who was linked to Andrew in a court case last week. Nor is there a suggestion that Andrew was involved in Thirsk and Wang’s venture.

Lawyers acting for Thirsk declined to provide comment but emphasised that there could be no allegations of impropriety against her. Thirsk’s links to China go back to her time working for Andrew, when she visited with him in his royal role.

Andrew and Thirsk, left, with the alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo, centre. Picture:: YouTube

Little is known about Wang, 35, but she is based in Australia and is a director of the UK entity of the Chinese e-commerce retailer JD.Com, which employed Thirsk as an adviser in its failed bid for Currys, the British electrical store chain.

Although she appears publicity-shy, Wang was revealed to have been the anonymous bidder behind the purchase of a palatial villa and resort in Sardinia in 2022, two years after she set up in business with Thirsk.

Wang shares the name, date of birth and nationality of an investor who spent a reported $131.8 million on the 49-room property, which includes a 1.6km private coastal path and three beaches. A Sardinian newspaper called Wang a “billionaire mandarina”.

It is not known whether Thirsk has visited the resort, and no link to Andrew is known in Thirsk’s Chinese-related business ventures.

In 2017, Thirsk became a director of Pitch@Palace Global, the international arm of Andrew’s entrepreneurial scheme. She left in 2020. The only director left is Arthur Lancaster, who was censured as part of an unrelated tax investigation in 2022 and went on to work for a PPE firm linked to Baroness Mone, the Conservative peer.

Andrew and Wang were approached for comment.

The Times