The giant gold eagle still perches on the roof of the former American embassy, a brash relic of US power looking down on London’s Grosvenor Square — although the building underneath is now a £1,200-a-night hotel owned by the Qataris.
I meet Erik Prince just around the corner in 34 Mayfair, a grill restaurant popular with the area’s gilet-wearing hedge fund managers. Here, the spirit animal stands by reception: a head-high sculpture of a panther made out of money, albeit polished copper pennies.
When I tell colleagues that I am having lunch with Prince, the reaction is a mixture of horror and fascination. “He’s the closest thing we have to a modern warlord,” says one. Another describes him as “one of the world’s supervillains”.
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