A long running sleaze scandal in Monaco, fueled by an anonymous blog and data dumps, could result in embarrassment for Prince Albert, the principality’s ruler, after a sacked senior courtier hinted he will sue Albert for defamation.
The disgraced courtier is Claude Palermo, Albert’s former asset and wealth manager, who was first hired by his father, Prince Rainier, the widower of Grace Kelly. Palermo was often described as Albert’s éminence grise and has long been privy to the innermost workings of the eye-watering property deals in the tax haven, where prices are over twice those in Manhattan on a square-foot basis.
Palermo came under attack in an anonymous Substack, Les Dossiers du Rocher (Monagesques call Monaco “Le Rocher,” which means “The Rock”). A little over two years ago, it began dumping incriminating and embarrassing documents and emails online.
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The particular target of the Substack was the so-called “G4,” or “Gang of Four” of senior courtiers who until just a few months ago controlled vast swathes of business and property activity in the principality.
Palermo was one of them. The others in the gang were Laurent Anselmi, 61, Albert’s chief of staff; Thierry Lacoste, 63, Albert’s personal lawyer; and Didier Linotte, 75, president of Monaco’s supreme court. According to a report in the London Times, Albert has not fired the latter two but has “publicly distanced himself” from them.
Another important figure in the story is Patrice Pastor, a powerful property developer known as P2 due to his initials, PP. The Air Mail newsletter described him as having “long controlled Monaco’s property market” but said relations between him and the Grimaldis soured after his rivals were awarded a massive 2014 contract to redevelop a stretch of waterfront known as Esplanade des Pêcheurs.
Air Mail pointed out that Pastor denies any involvement in the Dossiers Substack but said his “opponents” allege that he began “to mastermind the Dossiers du Rocher as an act of revenge” after being cut out of the lucrative deals.
In the first two years of the blog, Albert, who was also battling rumors his marriage had broken down, stood by the G4, but in recent weeks he has apparently cut them loose.
The prince told the French newspaper Le Figaro, per the Times, “if confidence evaporates you can no longer work together,” adding, “When questions arise, you need to know how to change the people who surround you to find the right path again and to write a new page in your history.”
Albert also told Monaco-Matin that the allegations in the Dossiers du Rocher had been “disastrous for Monaco’s image. We must absolutely put a stop to it.”
However, giving the G4 the boot from the inner circle may end up inflaming the scandal.
The French newspaper Le Monde reports: “Claude Palmero has become the man who is making the palace tremble.”
Le Monde said he was the “holder of all the secrets of the principality, from the prince’s private accounts to government investments.” The newspaper added that he was “the sort of person you spare in general.”
The Times said: “After his homes and offices were raided by police following the opening of a criminal investigation into corruption allegations, Palmero seemed irritated. He said that Albert’s interview with Le Figaro included a ‘regrettable echo of a recurrent campaign of denigration... feeding off false documents, malicious accusations and fallacious insinuations. I cannot let myself be slandered in this way.’”
There is an old folk tale that the Grimaldis—the official surname of Albert's family—were cursed when the first Prince Rainier of Monaco attempted to rape a young Flemish noblewoman who turned out to be a powerful witch.
As the scandal of the Dossiers du Rocher unfolds over the coming months, this supernatural medieval story is likely to seem startlingly relevant all over again.
