Bloomberg just published a blockbuster report on rampant corruption in the Principality of Monaco under the rule of Prince Albert II.
It is titled “The Monaco Royals Whose Deals Have Brought Peril to the Palace Doors” and depicts a country that has become Europe’s biggest embarrassment. Or as investigative reporters Gaspard Sebag and Anthony Cormier put it, “The rest of Europe has had about enough.”
The story details how Albert allowed his nephews, Andrea and Pierre Casiraghi, to strong-arm their way into owning some of Monaco’s most lucrative business interests, in real estate and aviation.
Extract: “When he took the throne in 2005, Albert promised reform. His government would no longer tolerate the rogues, pirates, confidence men and thieves who’d washed up on its shores for centuries. Monaco would join others in Europe to stamp out white-collar crime.”
My Comment: That is precisely why Albert retained me in June 2002 to be his intelligence adviser and to create an intelligence service that reported directly to him. Our brief was to ensure that Albert, upon ascending the throne, would be well informed to take on the rogues, pirates, confidence men and thieves that had been making Monaco a sunny place for shady people.
We did our jobs properly. We made Albert aware of the identities and activities of those he proclaimed would no longer be tolerated in Monaco.
Unfortunately, some of these rogues were Albert’s closest friends and associates.
At some point, Albert decided that tackling the biggest rogues of all—Claude Palmero (the Palace accountant) and Thierry Lacoste (the prince’s personal lawyer)—was not such a good idea after all. Instead, he let them run rampant and, in their dirty hands, the principality became more corrupt than ever before.
Albert continued to pretend that he was cleaning up Monaco.
But it was total sham.
Extract: “Today, its neighbors are concerned that the country is still a back door to western Europe for financial crooks. Monaco awaits two separate reports from international watchdogs looking into how it polices money laundering and internal corruption. Last year, European inspectors reported that Monaco so rarely investigates and prosecutes financial crimes that it’s in danger of joining the so-called gray list of countries, alongside Haiti, Syria and other dysfunctional states—a distinction that could dramatically hinder its ability to attract international business.
“This year, Monaco expects two reports from international watchdogs, including the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force, on its ability to fight money laundering and corruption. These could force it to change its laws and may create new constraints for banks and businesses operating in the country.”
From first-hand experience, the sad truth is this: Albert does not understand corruption, does not know what it is, and wouldn’t recognize corruption if it smacked him across the face.
I know this for certain because I witnessed it up close and personal.
This is what happened that best illustrates my contention above: In 2007, Albert accepted an extravagant gift from Russia’s President Vladimir Putin at a time when Putin so badly wanted the International Olympic Committee (IOC), of which Albert was (still is) a member, to vote Sochi as the Winter Olympics venue in 2014.
It was, of course, against the IOC’s “Code of Ethics” for Albert to accept such a gift, which went undeclared.
Littler wonder Albert now finds himself asleep in a bed he never learned how to make.