Eringer provided an update the Prince had requested on Carl Carlsson, having spoken with Stanley Berk--of California, USA--an investor in Carlsson's ill-fated business venture, Scoop.
Berk had told Eringer the following: Once Carlsson had the money from his investors, he engaged in inappropriate behavior, spending rampantly on personal items and selling securities in Scoop to cover personal debt. His actions set the business back, and it ultimately failed. Berk and his fellow investor, Stephen Grayson, filed a complaint in court alleging breach of contract and fraud, alleging that Carlsson made promises with no intention of performing.
Eringer suggested to the Prince that he make his aide-de-camp aware of this, to avoid potential embarrassment if the aide continued to allow Carlsson access to the royal entourage. (Three months earlier, the aide-de-camp reportedly phoned the hosts of a New Years Eve party the Prince planned to attend to insist they invite Carlsson, supposedly at the Prince's behest).
Petrified of confrontation, the Prince requested that Eringer make his aide-de-camp aware of Carlsson's poor character and business transgressions. Complying, Eringer phoned the aide-de-camp and left a message for him to call back. He never did.
When Eringer later mentioned this to the Prince, Albert replied, "I don't think he wants to hear your message."
Apparently, the Prince did not want to hear Eringer's message either: In early March he traveled to Moscow with the fellers--Robert Munsch, Preston Haskins, Carl Carlsson--and Gocha Arivadze, who allegedly rented a brothel for the night so the fellers could celebrate his birthday.
Albert also disregarded his spymaster's advice regarding security concerns while traveling in Russia. It is almost a certainty the FSB--Russia's domestic security service--would secretly record activities in the Prince's bedroom, which, depending on the nature of such activities, could one day lead to blackmail.
Munsch, or Dr. Mooch as he was called, had borrowed a cell phone from the Prince years before and was still using it. Albert had also given him a key to his private Monte Carlo bachelor pad. So whenever Munsch was in Monaco, he simply let himself in.
When Eringer spoke to the Prince by phone on March 19th, he told Eringer, "Munsch came in at five-thirty in the morning stone drunk and woke me up."
It was a mystery to all why the Prince continued to put up with such antics.
Eringer made an attempt to meet the Prince that evening, but Albert was off to the Rose Ball Gala.
"After that?" Eringer asked. (It was not unusual for them to meet late at night.)
"After that I hope to get laid," replied the Prince.
They managed to meet next day, mid-afternoon, and Eringer brought the Prince up to date on a number of issues.
What's the latest, Albert wanted to know, on Operation Hound Dog?
Eringer had gone passive on it, inundated by more important matters. But as the Prince was very keen to know what others had to say about him behind his back, the spymaster now intended to recommence.
"Dad's sick," the Prince said, adding that his father had always wanted to gather the family in a caravan for a trip across the United States.
"You should surprise him with a cross-country trip this summer," Eringer suggested.
It was not to be. Two days later, Albert flew from Italy to his father's hospital bedside. Prince Rainier was on his deathbed. On Easter Sunday, the old man miraculously bounced back from death. But the end was only days away.
The Paris Clique ringleaders-Thierry Lacoste and Steven Saltzman-made their existence in Monaco known as Prince Rainier lay dying. Word was, they intended to create a "kitchen cabinet" to advise and influence Prince Albert from behind the scenes, for their own financial advantage.
From Eringer's perspective, Albert's Paris-based liar and his porky cohort belonged in the bathroom, not the kitchen.
Robert Munsch ensconced himself in the Prince's apartment throughout the ordeal, and when the Prince finally suggested he move elsewhere, Munsch "pretended not to get the message."
Prince Rainier passed on April 6th at six twenty-five in the morning.
A new era had dawned.
Rainier had never prepared his son for the role he now faced as Sovereign ruler of Monaco--perhaps because he thought himself immortal. Or maybe he had tried and given up. (When Rainier was incapacitated from illness six months earlier, Albert had made several decisions, all reportedly reversed once Rainier regained his faculties.)
The Prince was "low, numb, and overwhelmed," according to a close friend. However "complicated" their relationship, the Prince unquestionably lost "his closest friend and mentor."
The Hereditary Prince was now Prince Albert II, though a more apt title for him would have been Albert the Pretender.
Painting: "Principality--Full Moon," June v2006, Thomas Van Stein
Coming Next: Remembering Thomas Becket
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