On 3 July 2011, The Sunday Times (UK) published a story by Matthew CAMPBELL entitled Curse of the Grimaldis, subtitled, The Full Monte--behind a fairy tale wedding in Monaco lie rumours of murky money, abuse of power and a reluctant bride.
Shortly thereafter, Monaco's judicial director, Philippe NARMINO, threatened a lawsuit over these comments about himself:
Albert did not hesitate to promote Philippe Narmino, a former magistrate, to chief of the justice department despite a police report investigating links with dubious dealings. Narmino had been in charge of the Monaco Red Cross when a €1m painting by Miro, the Spanish artist, that had been donated to the organisation “disappeared” only to turn up later for sale in an art gallery.
The Sunday Times presented NARMINO's lawyers with documents provided by ERINGER, including the Monaco police reports to which CAMPBELL referred.
NARMINO retreated.
But then on 22 August 2011, Prince Albert of Monaco and his wife, Charlene, brought a lawsuit before the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris claiming "defamation" and calling the article "hateful."
To the best of our knowledge--and we know an awful lot--everything written by CAMPBELL rings true.
We have been asked by The Sunday Times to support their defense.
Campbell wrote:
"How bad is it? Robert Eringer, a former FBI agent who was hired by the prince as an intelligence adviser to help him root out corruption, recalled that after an initial interest the prince 'seemed to prefer go-karting and gallivanting'.
"
We are delighted to oblige.
And we intend to keep readers fully updated.
Here is Matthew CAMPBELL's piece in two parts:
We highly recommend it as an accurate depiction of what is going on in Monaco under an inept, corrupt prince.
