(CNN) Prince Michael of Kent, Queen Elizabeth's first cousin, said Sunday that he "has no special relationship" with Russian President Vladimir Putin after an undercover journalistic investigation claimed he and a close friend were "secretly trading on their links" with Putin for profit. The report centers around undercover recordings of a Zoom meeting involving Prince Michael, his friend and business partner Simon Isaacs -- whose title is the Marquess of Reading -- and two undercover journalists posing as executives of a fake South Korean company that invests in gold. The investigation by the UK's Sunday Times and Channel 4 does not allege Prince Michael or Isaacs took part in any illegal activity. According to The Sunday Times, their undercover reporters claimed the fictitious South Korean company "was looking to hire a royal to market its investment service" and wrote in a letter that it "was planning to set up a Moscow office and offered to hire the prince as an adviser to use his 'excellent contacts' in Russia." "I've traveled extensively around Russia for many different reasons, but mainly on business," the prince told the undercover journalists on a Zoom call, clips of which were posted by The Sunday Times.

Source: CNN May 09, 2021 20:03 UTC