Former Prince Andrew summoned in fraud case, first royal witness call in 150 years

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, has been issued a witness summons in a civil fraud case in London. British media reported on Wednesday that this could be the first time in more than 150 years that a member of the British royal family has been formally called to give evidence in court.The summons follows a decision by a high court judge last month allowing lawyers in the case to seek Mountbatten-Windsor's testimony over a payment he received in 2019. However, he can challenge the summons and ask the court to cancel it, meaning he is not certain to appear as a witness.The case was brought by Turkish national Nebahat Evyap Isbilen, who accuses her former financial adviser, Selman Turk, of misappropriating tens of millions of pounds from her. She claims Turk misled her about a payment of £750,000, worth around $1 million, that he arranged for her to make to Mountbatten-Windsor in 2019.Mountbatten-Windsor, the younger brother of King Charles III, returned the money in 2021. He is not a defendant in the civil fraud case.Turk has argued that Isbilen approved the payment because she hoped Mountbatten-Windsor would use his connections to help her husband, who has been in prison in Turkey since 2015. Isbilen, however, maintains that her husband is being held as a result of political persecution.Isbilen's lawyers said last month that the summons could be the first issued to a member of the royal family since 1870. At the time, the future King Edward VII, then Prince of Wales, was called as a witness in a divorce case filed by Charles Mordaunt, a baronet and member of Parliament.Edward VII accepted the summons and denied having an improper relationship with Mordaunt's wife, Harriet.The latest development adds to Mountbatten-Windsor's legal difficulties. Several British police forces are investigating his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The inquiries began after the US Department of Justice released millions of pages of documents connected to its investigation into Epstein earlier this year.King Charles III stripped his brother of his princely title in late 2025 amid efforts to distance the monarchy from the controversy surrounding his association with Epstein.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.