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Prince Albert (65) is hitting back at bombshell claims from his former accountant that his principality’s financial matters are in disarray.
Excerpts from five secret notebooks belonging to Claude Palmero – who worked for the palace for 20 years and was seen as a loyal employee until his fall from grace last year – have been published in the French newspapers Le Monde and Liberation.
Last year, Claude was implicated in a fraud and corruption scandal and was consequently relieved of his duties. Now he's spilling the beans.
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Among his claims is that Albert – one of the richest royals in the world with a fortune estimated at over a billion dollars – has an account at BNP, a French bank, which he uses to pay his former mistresses and their children, allegedly without his wife Princess Charlene’s knowledge.
Palmero says Jazmin Grace Grimaldi (31), Albert’s actress daughter with a former American waitress-turned-estate agent with whom he had a brief fling in 1991, receives $86 000 (R1,5 million) every three months, despite not being part of the royal family.
He also claims the palace pays for kidnap and ransom insurance for Alexandre Coste (20), Albert’s son with Nicole Coste, a Franco-Togolese former air hostess he had a five-year relationship with in the early noughties. Coste is not in the line of succession either.
Palmero (67) takes aim at Charlene (45), claiming the mother of Albert’s twins was given an annual allowance of around €1,5 million (R30 million) but that she would exceed it.
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He says her extravagant spending included €860 000 (R17,2 million) on doing up her office at the Pink Palace and a further €826 000 (R16,5 million) on redecorating her holiday villa in Corsica.
Palmero recalls an instance in April 2016 when she demanded €66 000 (R1,3 million) in just one day.
According to a source close to the family, his shocking claims are a misrepresentation of the facts.
“Charlene, as princess, receives an annual allowance that is hers to use at her own discretion. She uses a lot of these funds to give to those close to her and also to those who assist her during her international travels as well as to charities close to her heart.”
Palmero claims Charlene hired illegal immigrants from Philippines to serve as nannies and palace staff. He also accuses Albert's sisters, Princesses Stephanie (58) and Caroline (67), of helping themselves to family assets, including jewellery and paintings.
In an entry from 2012 he noted his concerns that a construction business run by Caroline's youngest son, Pierre Casiraghi, is “going to cause problems".
"He’s very ambitious. Be careful," Palmero writes.
Albert has publicly denounced his former employee, saying he's just bitter about having been fired last year in a palace clean-up.
“The attacks that Palmero makes against me and against the state of Monaco and its institutions show his true nature,” the prince said in a statement.
Palmero – who was once viewed as a powerful figure in Monaco’s elite circles – allegedly left the royal coffers in a “catastrophic state”.
Meanwhile Albert’s lawyer, Maître Jean-Michel Darrois, says if illegal immigrants worked for Charlene, Palmero himself was to blame for having employed them.
Darrois also says all expenses over and above official allowances were met by the prince’s private funds and did not affect the palace budget.
Sources: telegraph.co.uk, evoke.ie, dailymail.co.uk
