Palace malice reached Defcon 1.
The scandal, which has been smoldering since 2021, involves some of the most powerful people in the postage-stamp-sized principality of Monaco, including Grand Duke Albert, the once-trusted “Gang of Four,” and shrewd real estate agents. Developers, and now includes Princess Charlene. In the wrong direction.
Claude Palmero, the Grimaldi family's once great and respected accountant, was abruptly ousted from his seat in the pink Mediterranean palace last year after 22 years at Albert. He succeeded his father, who served as accountant to the late Archduke Rainier.
Now he is exacting his revenge in a spectacular way.
This is a story that could have been born from One of Alfred Hitchcock's film noirs Prince Albert's mother, the late Princess Grace, gave five black notebooks to the movie “Mr. Palmero, 67''. Contains detailed notes about decades of palace financial secrets and shenanigans Le Monde, France's most respected newspaper.
The resulting four-part series includes “The fall of the man who knew too much” – shines an embarrassing light on 65-year-old Prince Albert's professional and personal weaknesses. Among them: a request for a second secret bachelor apartment after his 2011 marriage to former Olympic swimmer Charlene Wittstock, and a request for “special funding” for “secret missions” and “parallel activities”. ” includes an annual allocation of up to $650,000.
These “secret missions” included paying some police officers' retainers for “useful information” and “recovery of compromised photographs.”
In another interview with a French newspaper releasePalmero added that Albert kept a secret account in a French bank under the initials AG to secretly pay his former mistress and her children.
Until now, Prince Albert's wife Charlene, 46, has been portrayed as an enigmatic, fragile and troubled princess who was sometimes estranged. But Palmero's notes also describe her as a spendthrift, having squandered more than $16 million over eight years as of December 2019.
“These actions are dangerous,” Palmero wrote in his notebook. I can't control the princess's spending. ”
Albert is the current head of the Grimaldi family, which has ruled Monaco since 1160, and is reportedly worth between $1 billion and $1 billion. According to her notes, Charlene received an allowance of about $1.6 million a year, but her husband also gave her additional payments periodically. It also included a $650,000 payment in 2017 “to pay off her overdraft.”
“They're really trying to get her,” a 35-year Monaco resident who knows Princess Charlene personally told the Post, adding that she was referring to palace courtiers and powerful Monaco officials. I mentioned that it was both. “She couldn't play ball the way she was supposed to, but they brought it to her. No one ever liked her because she has a ruthless personality, but now she's really on the knife.” is cut off.”
Mr. Palmero also detailed in his notes Charlene's questionable spending habits, including hiring an illegal immigrant nanny without the proper visa or passport as part of a staff of eight, and paying just a meager amount per day. He said that included paying $100.
After Albert and Charlene's twins, Gabriela and Jack, were born in 2014, they were placed in the care of an illegal immigrant nanny, according to the notes.
“'Her Royal Highness the gentle Princess makes disobedient people work for her,'” Palmero warned Prince Albert. He also mentioned “a moonlit Filipino woman who ties up her dog in the shower.” .
Ms. Palmero also wrote, “Update on the employment of nannies…We are completely illegal (even their tourist visas expired on January 7th)…Not only are they in an illegal situation, but they entered the country with fake passports. “No,” he wrote.
“Monaco has always been full of scandals. And with so many explosive stories that have mysteriously suddenly gone quiet, secret profits aren't really all that unexpected,” said the longtime French Riviera official. says Alison Coe, a writer based there. We have a blog focused on Monacohe told the Post.
“I don’t think anyone here is that shocked by all the money being thrown around that little principality, except, of course, about the low wages of undocumented domestic staff. It's pretty embarrassing. But what's really baffling everyone is how it happened… Talk about spilling the tea. Schadenfreude!'' Ms. Coe said. added. “Everyone loves to see the 1% reversed, and in Monaco it's usually done in the most spectacular way possible.”
The ousted Mr. Palmero last spring lost a power struggle between Mr. Albert's advisers and Patrice Pastor, Monaco's most powerful real estate developer, over the principality's ultra-profitable real estate market. “Les Dossier du Rocher” The Rock Files begin to expose what they claim to be the corrupt secrets of Albert's inner circle. The charges also include money laundering.
The site accuses Palmero, King Albert's chief of staff Laurent Anselmi, the prince's lawyer and childhood friend Thierry Lacoste, and Didier Rinotto, president of Monaco's Supreme Court, of fraud, nepotism, corruption and He is accused of undue influence over wealthy real estate properties. real estate market.
All four deny involvement in corruption allegations And after Dossiers du Rocher's website started leaking information, they filed an official complaint.
Many people close to the so-called “Gang of Four” believe that Pastor, the scion of the highly influential Pastor real estate empire, was the man behind the dossier of hacked emails and data dumps of bank records. ing. The pastor denies it and now appears to have the confidence of Prince Albert himself.
“All this is final proof that the emperor has no clothes,” said Robert Ellinger, who worked as an intelligence adviser under President Albert in Monaco from 2002 to 2007. He added that in the past, Palmero, Lacoste and others warned the prince about not putting his interests first.
“Albert is responsible for the soup he's in now,” Ellinger says. He has his own blog about Grimaldis. he told the Post.
“Monaco is always at war. Palmero was deeply mired in factionalism. What I was doing for Albert was being an honest mediator pointing out these competing factions. I see them as cancerous cells, and I think I was the first to blow the whistle on Palmero. But he fired me instead. Albert is not good at confrontation. He goes from there. I’m running away.”
The secret notebooks provide more than just a glimpse of the money paid for Albert's illegitimate birth. and Unjust relatives.
Prince Albert's sisters, Princess Caroline and Princess Stephanie, receive annual allowances of $780,000 and $690,000, respectively, according to an article published by Le Monde about The Notebook. Princess Charlene's brother Sean Wittstock, 41, was given about $800,000 to buy a home.
Prince Albert is generous to his 31-year-old daughter Jazmine Grace Grimaldi. Her mother, Tamara Rotolo, a former waitress who had a brief affair with Albert, fought for years to get Albert to recognize Jazmin as his own, even ambushed her at a public event.
It worked. Jazmin has been dating Ian Mellencamp, John Mellencamp's nephew, since at least 2016, and has been living with him in the $3 million Tribeca apartment Albert bought for her six years ago. live with.
Jazmin, who appeared in a small role in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,'' also has a small role in John Mellencamp's new musical “Small Town: The Story of Jack and Diane,'' which is currently in workshop in New York.
According to the notes, she receives an allowance of about $344,000 a year. So is her half-brother Alexandre Grimaldi-Coste, 20, whose mother is Togo-born former flight attendant Nicole Coste.
Alexandre and Nicole are often seen at the palace, but the notebook reveals that there was a bad relationship between Nicole and Charline.
Palermo warned Albert that Nicole was “in the process of costing” the palace $850,000 a year in 2015, according to the note. She was then given an additional $350,000 and fled to London, where Albert bought an apartment for her. However, Nicole reportedly foresaw “big problems” with Charlene if Albert died, so she put the property in Alexandre's name.
In addition to smearing the Grimaldi family (they are not royals, but serene highnesses), Palmero is suing his former employer for $1 million, accusing the palace of stealing the money. He angrily refutes the claim.
“I didn't receive a penny.” Palmero told Le Monde newspaper. “This is a 100% denial. I am not a corrupt person or a thief, but it is completely unthinkable that the Crown Prince's family, to whom I have devoted myself for 20 years, is unfairly accusing me today. is.”
Prince Albert responded in a statement: [Palmero] against me and the country [of Monaco] And the system shows his true nature and the modest respect he has for his family and principality. ”
Mr. Ellinger told the Post that while all the revelations appear to be bad, Mr. Albert's reign is almost certain no matter what.
“There is no authority that can remove him, and I don't think Mr. Albert can resign,” he said. “If that were the case, his son would be the ruler, but someone like Princess Caroline would be appointed as regent. But I don't see that happening. And , the citizens of Monaco are not going to revolt.”
