Queen Elizabeth Allegedly Tried To Hide Her Wealth By Lobbying For Change In Law: Report

Queen Elizabeth II successfully lobbied the U.K. government to change a draft law in order to shield details of her personal wealth from the public, documents unearthed in the National Archives allegedly reveal.

The government memos discovered by The Guardian allegedly revealed that the Queen’s own private lawyer, Matthew Farrer, put pressure on ministers to make a change to an upcoming piece of legislation back in the 1970s.

The Companies Bill sought to prevent investors from subtly acquiring huge stakes in listed companies through other shell companies. It included a clause granting directors the right to demand from any nominees owning shares in their company the identities of their clients.

Queen Elizabeth II has the ability to influence British laws through a parliamentary procedure called the Queen’s consent, which requires ministers to inform her about any legislation that may affect her private interests or may impact the royal prerogative before it is brought before parliament.

The papers showed that in November 1973, the Queen opposed the proposed transparency measure, which would reveal her private shareholdings and investments in listed companies, as well as their value, and allow the public to scrutinize her finances. The true extent of Queen Elizabeth's personal wealth, which has never been fully revealed, is believed to be in the hundreds of millions of pounds, The Guardian noted.

At the time, her lawyer paid a visit to the Department of Trade and Industry, where he met with officials to relay the Queen's objection and propose that Her Majesty be exempted.

"I have spoken to Mr Farrer," The Guardian quoted a civil servant called CM Drukker as writing on Nov. 9. "As I had recalled he – or rather, I think, his clients – are quite as concerned over the risk of disclosure to directors of a company as to shareholders and the general public. He justifies this not only because of the risk of inadvertent or indiscreet leaking to other people but more basically because disclosure to any person would be embarrassing."

Geoffrey Howe, then-Conservative trade secretary, proposed a secrecy clause exempting certain companies from declaring the identities of their shareholders. The change allegedly benefited a variety of wealthy investors and the Queen was "plainly the intended beneficiary of the arrangement," the report noted.

It took three years before the bill and its secrecy clause became law. The exemption was almost immediately granted to a newly formed company, called Bank of England Nominees Limited, operated by senior individuals at the Bank of England. The exemption was believed to have helped conceal the Queen's private fortune until at least 2011, when the government disclosed that Bank of England Nominees was no longer covered by it.

The Guardian reached out to Buckingham Palace regarding the change in law but did not receive a response.

But a rep for Queen Elizabeth issued a statement saying, "Queen’s consent is a parliamentary process, with the role of sovereign purely formal. Consent is always granted by the monarch where requested by government."

"Whether Queen’s consent is required is decided by parliament, independently from the royal household, in matters that would affect crown interests, including personal property and personal interests of the monarch,” the statement continued. “If consent is required, draft legislation is, by convention, put to the sovereign to grant solely on advice of ministers and as a matter of public record.”