Did Prince Charles write to or talk to Boris Johnson about his dislike of the 650 Richard Rogers-designed flats at Chelsea Barracks before the Mayor indicated his disapproval last July —and before developer Qatari Diar decided not to apply for planning permission? Let's hope not.

For HRH has been drawn into the court battle between the Candy brothers, who dreamed up the luxury flats development, and the Qataris who paid nearly £1 billion for the site. City Spy can confirm that Charles has now been formally asked to provide evidence of his involvement within 14 days in a case where Nick and Christian Candy are claiming up to £81 million in damages for being thrown off the job.

The fact that HRH lobbied the Emir of Qatar is neither here nor there apparently in law. But if Charles interfered in the planning process by lobbying a directly elected politician he could be in trouble. Clarence House is carefully considering its response by all accounts...

Mandy's in the brown stuff

Kraft's hard-nosed decision to embarrass Lord Mandelson (by closing Cadbury's Somerdale factory, near Bristol, after he'd told the world they would try to keep it open) didn't surprise company insiders.

At a City function, a former director whose firm had been taken over by the US giant said: “That's typical. We got all the same bollocks about no redundancies or cutting back on investment and within six months all those promises had been forgotten.”

He added: “These guys are only interested in return on investment, and once they've taken you over, that's ROI compared with what they're getting in 127 other countries — not what you might have been making beforehand. In fact, ours had been better than what they subsequently made but that doesn't matter to Chicago. They have a standard way of doing things and if yours doesn't happen to fit with what they think the hedge-fund managers want, tough.”

Mandelson, stung by charges that he lacks accountability to MPs as a member of the House of Lords, says he would be happy for the rules to be changed to allow him to answer questions in the Commons. But he says the rule change “is a matter for the House of Commons authorities and I do not want to appear to be begging, beseeching or bullying anyone.” Of course not. Perish the thought, Peter.

Gloom engulfs the IPO scene

Gloom and doom among the corporate advisers as New Look's IPO is canned. The bankers, lawyers, accountants and PRs who had all been looking forward to bumper pay days, citing three floats — New Look, Merlin Entertainment and Travelport — as proof of a surge in initial public offerings, with the promise of more to follow, have seen their hopes dashed. There was talk, too, of an upswing in major takeovers after Kraft's purchase of Cadbury but that shows no sign of materialising.

For many, it's a grim first half of the year...

Moving and shake-ups

Major moves afoot at RBS Coutts (the private banking business controlled by taxpayers). City Spy gathers a sizeable team of wealth managers in Zurich who look after clients in Central and Eastern Europe is about to up sticks and join rival Swiss bank BSI. That is the same bank that poached a similar team from UBS's Singapore operations last summer. In Zurich, a decent chunk of assets under management is set to follow the team from Coutts.

When divorcing, de-tag

The bandwagon has already departed, but lawyers have woken up to the opportunities presented by Facebook. Divorce specialists are scanning the social networking website to pick up evidence of adultery.

One American lawyer said the first piece of advice he gives clients is “to terminate their page immediately”. He cited a case where he was representing a woman getting divorced from her alcoholic husband who was seeking custody of their children. The man had told the judge that he had discovered religion and had not had touched alcohol in months.

But his Facebook profile revealed photos of him holding a beer in each hand, and a joint in his mouth.

Pre-packed, signed, sealed and sent

City Spy has always been sceptical about pre-pack administrations — where a company goes into administration and is immediately sold back to a new vehicle set up by the ex-owners, leaving the unsecured creditors high and dry.

The row surrounding the administration of Wind Hellas, the Greek telecoms group that became the UK's largest pre-pack, has done nothing to dispel the belief that they require urgent investigation.

Wind Hellas was sold back to its previous owners, less €1 billion of debts, by Ernst & Young in August last year. Ernst & Young is investigating a claim of conflict of interest brought by SPQR Capital, a shareholder in Wind Hellas that saw its investment wiped out in the pre-pack. SPQR alleges that the independent director of Wind Hellas overseeing the process was being paid by Weather Investments, the company that bought Wind Hellas out of administration. SPQR claims Weather set up a company in Luxembourg, Bosinga Investments, months before the Wind Hellas assets were placed in administration. Bosinga was used to buy back Wind Hellas.

What puzzles City Spy is why Ernst & Young is investigating its own pre-pack — surely this is one for the authorities? Isn't it time the whole discriminatory and farcical nature of pre-packs was ended?