Duchess devastated by bribes scandal

The Duchess of York was said to be "devastated" and "deeply regretted causing any embarrassment" yesterday after being caught on film accepting a $40,000 payment as part of an apparent cash-for-access deal to her former husband, the British trade envoy, Prince Andrew.

In what is the biggest royal scalp to be taken by the News of the World's veteran investigations editor Mazher Mahmood, Sarah Ferguson is shown shaking hands last Tuesday on an alleged £500,000 agreement after claiming she could "open doors" by fixing meetings with the Prince, facilitate "friendship talk" and ultimately help win lucrative international deals.

"That opens up everything you would ever wish for," she told the reporter, who was posing as a wealthy businessman. "And I can open any door you want. And I will."

The newspaper also alleged it had details of "two tycoons" who she claimed to have already introduced to the Duke of York, appointed unpaid UK Special Representative for Trade and Investment in 2001 after he retired from the Royal Navy.

It was also claimed she demanded a cut of any future profits accruing from her high-level introduction.

Neither Buckingham Palace nor the UK Department for Business Innovation and Skills which funds some of the Prince's trips, would comment on the allegations.

The Duchess, who was flying from London to Los Angeles last night where she will accept a charity award, is expected to issue a statement. The Prince was flying back to the UK from a business trip in Asia.

After divorcing Prince Andrew in 1996 after their six-year marriage, the Duchess spent four years paying off debts reported to have amounted to several million pounds, and building a successful career in the United States.

But last month there were fresh claims that she was back in the red after the collapse of her public-speaking and media business last year. She said she had been left with no money after accepting a £15,000-a-year divorce settlement from her former husband so she could remain on good terms with the Queen.

Throughout the film of the conversations with Mahmood, in an exclusive hotel in New York, a Belgravia restaurant and a nearby London flat, Sarah Ferguson stresses that her former husband is "whiter than white". There is no suggestion of wrongdoing on behalf of the Duke of York or that he knew of her activities.

She falsely claims she had spoken to the Prince about the plan, telling the reporter: "He knows that he had to underwrite me up to now because I've got no money. So if you want to meet him in your business, look after me and he'll look after you ... you'll get it back tenfold."

She is shown explaining how the Duke cannot work because he is the "Prince of England" but that he meets the "most amazing people" and "throws them my way" before insisting that not a word of the deal must be leaked.

She said: "Then ... you open up all the channels whatever you need, whatever you want, and then that's what and then you meet Andrew and that's fine. And that's, that's when you really open up whatever you want."

The Duchess appears animated and at times tearful as she makes a series of unfounded claims including that the Prince had suggested the £500,000 introduction fee which she said should be wire-transferred to a British bank account.

But the most damaging image will be of the former princess making a silent "gimme" motion before accompanying the undercover reporter to a room where she watches as he produces wads of bank notes which he places in a black computer bag.

At the dinner in London, the Duchess raises her concerns that she was indeed being investigated by the News of the World.

It is alleged she had earlier sent two aides to try to persuade the reporter to agree a seven-page confidentiality agreement but went ahead even though it was not signed.

As her guard fell after the pair had drunk a £95 bottle of Burgundy she was chauffeured to the Mayfair flat where she said: "I'm a complete aristocrat. Love that don't you? I love it. It's tremendously fabulous. But I've never admitted that to anyone by the way."

The Duchess is the third senior female royal to fall foul of Mahmood. In 2005, the man known as the Fake Sheikh for the way he befriends his subjects posing as a wealthy Arab, persuaded Princess Michael of Kent to describe Diana, Princess of Wales as a "bitter" and "nasty" woman. Four years earlier, he exposed the Duchess of Wessex criticising Tony and Cherie Blair.

A spokesman for the News of the World said they had no comment.

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