SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (CN) - A man who claims to be
Prince Albert of Monaco's former intelligence adviser says the prince owes
him money for handling issues that jeopardized the prince's image, including
illegitimate children and a rape accusation. Robert Eringer says he spent 8
years investigating people in the prince's social orbit and providing him
with information about Russian and Italian organized crime, arms dealers,
Freemasons, money left in Monaco by Jews sent to Nazi concentration camps,
and a long list of other allegations, and the prince owes him 40,000 euros
for it.
Eringer says Prince Albert hired him in 2002 as his intelligence
adviser for about 80,000 euros a year, though a formal agreement was never
drawn up. He claims he spent the next 8 years investigating the Prince's
friends and associates, creating liaisons with intelligence departments of
other nations, including the United States, and acting as the prince's "eyes
and ears."
Eringer says he traced arms dealers, Russian and Italian money
launderers, including Vladimir Putin, and people in direct contact with
Saddam Hussein, who were involved in shady oil deals. Eringer says he warned
the prince to keep his distance from dubious characters, including the man
who was "reputed to be French President Jacques Chirac's secret channel to
Saddam Hussein," and the prince initially heeded his warnings because he
wanted to rid Monaco of corruption.
Eringer claims he warned the prince about a man who was being
considered as Monaco's Consul to Russia, because the man "had been a KGB
officer in the 1980s whose specialties were labor unions and
disinformation," and because he was "connected to Petro trade, a company in
Monaco believed to be laundering Russian money for Putin. (Eringer possesses
documents on these matters.)" [Parentheses in original.]
Eringer claims he also negotiated with the mothers of Prince Albert's
illegitimate children, and discovered a woman who claimed the Prince had
kidnapped and raped her.
According to Eringer's Superior Court complaint: "In August 2004, HSH [His
Serene Highness] asked Eringer to assist a young woman resident of Nice,
France and [sic] aspiring children's book author and illustrator. Much
later, this woman told Eringer that she had been lured to a yacht to meet
HSH, who expressed an interest in helping her. This young woman claims that
she was kidnapped and raped by HSH on the boat. She has sworn an affidavit,
which Eringer possesses."
Eringer says he exposed one of the prince's so-called friends who had a
videotape of Prince Albert engaged in a sex act with a young stripper on his
44th birthday. He claims the man was showing the tape at parties around
Monaco, saying, "This is what I have on your prince."
Eringer claims he introduced the prince to ranking officials in the CIA
and the FSB, the successor to the KGB, and cultivated relationships for the
prince with other powerful U.S. and foreign representatives. He claims he
worked tirelessly to protect the prince's image in the public eye.
He claims that in a meeting about the prince's "as yet unrecognized
illegitimate daughter," the prince asked him, "Could you arrange for her to
have an accident?"
Eringer claims the prince stopped responding to him toward the end of
2007 and the beginning of 2008, and never paid him for his final quarter of
work. He claims the prince owes him 40,000 euros and has not responded to
several requests for payment.
Through the 31-page complaint, Eringer claims he "possesses documents"
on his allegations. He demands his paycheck, alleging breach of contract and
misrepresentation. He is represented by Brigham Ricks.
The defendant is His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco aka
Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi.