The “Princess and the Pea” is a famous fairy tale but should there be a new version called the “Princess and the Pound Notes”?

Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York and former wife of Prince Andrew, has been in the news for all the wrong reasons.

Evidence came to light last week of the former member of the British royal family accepting money in used bank notes to arrange access to her husband ($40,000 as an initial payment of an agreed total of £500,000). Many people were shocked as taking money to arrange access to people in influence could look like corruption.

The Duchess of York (no longer referred to as “Her Royal Highness” following previous run ins with the more senior royals) may be in greater trouble than the public relations mire and financial trouble that she admits to being in.

If the Duchess was not planning to include full and frank disclosure of the cash received (or what some people may call “bribes”), she appears to have been engaging in activity that could look like money laundering. Accepting payment in notes and coins is often fairly good evidence of wanting to disguise the origin of the funds.

Now whilst money laundering shouldn’t normally be an issue for an ex-Princess, money laundering is big news for professionals, especially professionals practising in the European Union.  The EU’s third Directive on money laundering requires that all accountants and tax advisors are effectively trained in detection of money laundering.

Penalties for non-compliance with this can be severe. Money laundering, or facilitating money laundering, under UK law can carry a criminal sanction of two years’ jail time.

This could be an interesting bit of gossip to follow for students!  Maybe the Duchess should use some of those used bank notes to engage the services of a good lawyer?