For more than two decades, Claude Palmero held the purse strings of the House of Grimaldi, hereditary rulers of the millionaire-packed Mediterranean principality of Monaco since the 13th century and among Europe’s glitziest royals.
For 22 years as principal asset manager to the house’s current head, Prince Albert II, the bespectacled accountant handled its investments, oversaw its expenditures and – as best he could – balanced its books.
Now he is spilling the beans, and in devastating fashion.
Unceremoniously sacked last summer amid unverified allegations made on an anonymously run website of financial impropriety at the palace, Palmero, 67, is not only suing for €1m but is also, it seems, bent on doing more than mere pecuniary damage.
Five black notebooks filled with details of the family’s dealings have found their way to the French media, and Palmero has spoken at length to Le Monde for a series of articles shocking even in a playground for the super-rich.
“I think everyone knew their lifestyle was … glamorous,” said an employee of a company supplying domestic staff to some of the principality’s moneyed residents. “[But] I’m not sure we knew they managed to get through quite that much. Even in a place that’s used to the way billionaires behave, it’s raised some eyebrows.”
Among the notebooks’ more sensational revelations, according to Le Monde, are the spending habits of Albert’s wife, Princess Charlene, 46, a former swimming champion who as Charlene Wittstock represented South Africa at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
Charlene, who married Albert in 2011 and gave birth to twins Jacques and Gabriella three years later, has an annual allowance of about €1.5m, the notebooks reveal. In December 2019, Palmero noted she had spent “about €15m in the past eight years”.
The notebooks record that Albert, the son and heir of Prince Rainier III and the former Hollywood star Grace Kelly, who has a personal fortune estimated at €2bn, has routinely topped up his wife’s allowance.
In 2010, before their marriage, the prince approved an additional payment to Charlene of €700,000, Palmero recorded, adding: “Be careful not to increase these allowances at a time of [economic] crisis.”
In 2016 the princess received €77,000 in cash, “less than the year before, but still far too much,” and in 2017 there was €600,000 “to pay off her overdraft”. In 2020, Palmero recorded a one-off payment of €200,000, plus €5,000 in cash.
Palmero did not sign off on everything. When Charlene wanted a catamaran, he noted “AVOID” in capitals. He objected to the cost of her proposed office renovation (nearly €1m) and to her spending a similar sum on two months’ rental of a villa in Corsica.
In 2021 he put his foot down again when the princess suggested she needed more staff, writing: “There are already 8.5 at her service, more than ever before.” He did, though, authorise three payments of €300,000 to her brother Sean “for his house”.
The Wittstock family are not the only ones to benefit, the notebooks show. The prince’s two sisters, Stéphanie and Caroline, receive annual allowances of €800,000 and €900,000 respectively, “to manage their day-to-day”.
Expenditure on Albert’s two children from relationships before he was married, with Nicole Coste and Tamara Rotolo, are also recorded in notebooks.
The palace bought Jazmin Grace Grimaldi, now 31, a €3m apartment in New York and pays her a quarterly allowance of $86,000, according to Palmero’s records. Alexandre Grimaldi-Coste, 20, benefits from kidnap and ransom insurance.
Alexandre’s mother meanwhile, receives funding for her fashion business, to the tune of “getting on for €1m a year”, the notebooks record – including €350,000 to open a store in Knightsbridge, London.
Libération newspaper, which also interviewed Palmero, reported that Albert kept a private BNP bank account labelled AG (for Albert Grimaldi), allowing him to transfer money to the former girlfriends and their children without Charlene’s knowledge.
Nicole Coste also demanded a flat, the notebooks show, which was to be “entirely in Alexandre’s name” since “Nicole fears big problems with Charlene” if Albert died. The prince’s name had to be kept out of the deal “at all costs”, Palmero wrote.
The notebooks further record Palmero’s alarm at the number of staff the palace employed illegally: Charlene’s personal cook, paid €300 a day in cash, and Filipino nannies who had entered Monaco on tourist visas or false passports.
Le Monde also reported on the existence of “special funds” that were allocated up to €600,000 a year for “secret missions” and “parallel activities” – such as paying a police officer a retainer for “useful information” and “recovering compromising photos”.
Albert’s lawyer Jean-Michel Darrois told the paper that the palace budget and the prince’s own funds were kept separate at all times, any illegal hires were ultimately Palmero’s responsibility, and the prince did not approve and was not aware of any slush funds.
Palmero, who inherited the job of palace asset manager from his late father, André, said that if his name appeared on the deeds of parts of the family’s property portfolio, it was because they had asked him to be the registered owner, partly for tax reasons.
“I never took a centime,” he told Le Monde. “This is a 100% denial. I am neither corrupt nor a thief, all the improbable things of which the royal family, to whom I devoted myself for two decades, unjustly accuses me today.”
In a statement to the paper, Albert said Palmero’s actions “show his true nature and the little respect … he has for the family and the principality”, adding: “His duties imposed on him an absolute discretion, which he has violated.”
In firing Palmero, the prince added, “I exercised my right to choose the asset manager of my choice. Events have shown how much this decision was the right one.” In the mild-mannered accountant, however, he may have made a powerful enemy.
