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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. For a lot of people,

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Speaker 1: Monico brings to mind visions of wealth and seaside luxury.

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Speaker 2: When you think about Monica, you think quite quickly about

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Speaker 2: the cincinating French riviera. You can picture yachts gliding on

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Speaker 2: the Mediterranean.

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Speaker 1: That's my colleague Gaspar Sabag. He's based in Paris and

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Speaker 1: focuses on investigations and court cases in France and Francophone countries.

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Speaker 3: And this Monica is lovely.

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Speaker 1: Is Anthony Cormier, a reporter on Bloomberg's investigations team.

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Speaker 3: Monico has this incredible reputation despite its very very small size, right.

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Speaker 3: It has this elegant casino, It's got the very famous

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Speaker 3: Grand Prix.

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Speaker 1: For the past year, Gaspar and Anthony have been paying

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Speaker 1: a lot of attention to this glitzy, glamorous Mediterranean country.

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Speaker 1: And that's because it's on the brink of crisis.

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Speaker 3: Monico is at the moment staring down the barrel of

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Speaker 3: a gun. The country itself faces two looming reports by

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Speaker 3: watchdogs in Europe about money laundering, about its inability to

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Speaker 3: stop white collar crime, and about corruption inside the government.

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Speaker 1: The outcome of one of those reports could put the

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Speaker 1: country on what's known as the graylest That's a classification

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Speaker 1: reserved for a handful of states under increased monitoring for

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Speaker 1: things like money laundering. That could make it much harder

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Speaker 1: for the country to attract international business. And one ongoing

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Speaker 1: drama involving Monico's high powered royal family could further tarnish

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Speaker 1: the country's reputation.

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Speaker 2: And that's really broke peril to the Palace's door and

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Speaker 2: is getting pretty sweaty, I would say.

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Speaker 1: Today on the show, a Bloomberg investigation into the business

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Speaker 1: ventures of Monico's royal family and why two of the

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Speaker 1: prince's nephews are now facing allegations of using their relationship

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Speaker 1: with the palace to line their own pockets at a

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Speaker 1: time when the country's government is already under scrutinyed for

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Speaker 1: failing to curb financial crime. I'm your host, Sarah Holder,

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Speaker 1: and this is the big take from Bloomberg News. Tucked

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Speaker 1: between Italy and France, the tiny country of Monaco spans

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Speaker 1: less than a square mile that's smaller than Central Park,

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Speaker 1: and this wealthy enclave along the Mediterranean coast has been

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Speaker 1: ruled by the same family line for the past seven

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Speaker 1: hundred years.

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Speaker 3: Monaco is a very unique place because it is the

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Speaker 3: last bastion of monarchy in Western Europe. It is the

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Speaker 3: longest running dynasty in Europe, and as most of its

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Speaker 3: neighbors in Europe shook off their rulers, their kings and

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Speaker 3: queens in favor of democracy, Monico is still run by

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Speaker 3: a royal family, a Prince, His Serene Highness Albert II

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Speaker 3: of Monaco.

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Speaker 2: He basically is the government. There's a small parliament, but

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Speaker 2: he can veto their decisions. He can set the foreign

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Speaker 2: policy over there. I mean, he's really the go to

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Speaker 2: person in Monaco.

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Speaker 1: Albert the second has been the reigning monarch since two

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Speaker 1: thousand and five, and he has a close relationship with

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Speaker 1: his nephews.

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Speaker 3: Andrea and Pierre cassi Rak. They're tall and blonde. They're

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Speaker 3: the children of Albert's eldest sister, Princess Caroline. They grew

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Speaker 3: up with enormous attention there, you know, the tabloids used

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Speaker 3: to follow them around everywhere.

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Speaker 1: They got a lot of attention because of their charm,

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Speaker 1: model like looks and sense of adventure. Andrea was on

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Speaker 1: People Magazine's list of the world's most Beautiful people Pierre

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Speaker 1: was part of the crew that helped Greta Tunberg sail

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Speaker 1: to New York for a UN Climate summit. But their

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Speaker 1: story is also in tragedy.

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Speaker 3: When Andrea and Pierre were just six and three years old,

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Speaker 3: they lost their father. He was a bit of an adventurer.

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Speaker 3: He loved speed, he raised powerboats, in fact, was a

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Speaker 3: powerboat champion, and unfortunately, when they were young, he was

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Speaker 3: in an offshore race. His powerboat flipped and Stefano passed.

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Speaker 3: But before he died he'd set up a number of companies.

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Speaker 3: One of them dealt with construction and another dealt with helicopters.

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Speaker 1: And by the time Andrea and Pierre had grown up,

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Speaker 1: they decided to pick up where their father left off.

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Speaker 1: In two thousand and nine, when the younger brother, Pierre,

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Speaker 1: was just twenty one years old, he announced that he

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Speaker 1: had become the majority shareholder of his father's construction company, and.

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Speaker 2: That very same year the company starts working on major

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Speaker 2: state contracts.

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Speaker 1: One of their first big jobs was to build the

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Speaker 1: new Yacht Club of Monaco, and Gaspar says, you'd be

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Speaker 1: hard pressed to find a higher profile public works project.

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Speaker 2: It's right on the main poll He got the big

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Speaker 2: yachts coming in, people are meeting, you set up business

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Speaker 2: meetings there. You know, it's really quite a unique place.

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Speaker 1: It's the center of Monaco's CNBC culture. Yes, absolutely, For

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Speaker 1: two young men looking to break into real estate, it

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Speaker 1: was an extraordinary opportunity.

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Speaker 2: Ps twenty one years old and Rest twenty five years old,

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Speaker 2: and all of a sudden, here they are building one

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Speaker 2: of the most iconic buildings in.

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Speaker 1: Monaco, with Andrea and Pierre at the helm. Their construction

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Speaker 1: company would go on to win more state contracts, a

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Speaker 1: botanical center, apartments for the elderly, the rebuilding of Parliament.

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Speaker 1: In fact, the company's website says it's been a part

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Speaker 1: of the most important public projects in the principality of Monaco,

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Speaker 1: and all those contracts go through their uncle's government.

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Speaker 2: Imagine the British royal family. Imagine a member, Imagine a

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Speaker 2: nephew of King Charles bidding on a state contract. What

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Speaker 2: would people say. I think there would be a massive outcry,

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Speaker 2: But in Monaco, you know, the volume is muted often

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Speaker 2: because the locals they have too much at stake to

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Speaker 2: cause a fuss.

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Speaker 1: After the break, Gaspar and Anthony's investigation reveals just how

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Speaker 1: close the relationship between the Kasaragi success and their uncle's

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Speaker 1: government may have been, and why that is causing a fuss.

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Speaker 1: We're back after picking up the mantle of their late

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Speaker 1: father's construction company. Andrea and Pierre Kasaragi, nephews to Monaco's ruler,

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Speaker 1: Prince Albert. The Ion have had a lot of success

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Speaker 1: securing state contracts, but their ambitions didn't stop with construction.

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Speaker 1: In the last decade, the nephews have looked to the sky.

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Speaker 3: There are only two places in the world that regularly

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Speaker 3: schedule helicopter flights to and from. One is meant to JFK.

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Speaker 3: The other is Monaco to the local airport in Nice.

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Speaker 3: It's a really picturesque way to get in and out

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Speaker 3: of the principality. You fly over the rocks and you

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Speaker 3: see the yachts and it's a really gorgeous seven minute flight.

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Speaker 1: Andrea and Pierre's father founded a helicopter company called Monacare

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Speaker 1: back in the eighties, but it had largely gone dormant

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Speaker 1: after his death.

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Speaker 3: It was picked up by the palace itself to shuttle

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Speaker 3: the royal family around, but when they got a bit older,

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Speaker 3: Andrea and Pierre decided that they want to re enter

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Speaker 3: the helicopter business.

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Speaker 1: They rounded up some investors and started operating a service

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Speaker 1: for VIP members and the Principality, and eventually they set

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Speaker 1: their sites on the exclusive Nice Airport to Monaco route.

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Speaker 3: But that route had for many many years been controlled

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Speaker 3: by two local brothers. They were surprised to learn that

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Speaker 3: the Principality was taking away their contract and opening up

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Speaker 3: for competition.

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Speaker 1: The Principality put out a call for proposals from different

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Speaker 1: helicopter operators and in the end, Andrea and Pierre's company

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Speaker 1: won the contract, and the losing brothers were shocked.

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Speaker 3: They don't understand what's happened to them. They don't in

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Speaker 3: fact understand why the contract was taken away in the

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Speaker 3: first place. They felt like they had a legitimate.

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Speaker 1: Bid, and Anthony says they only got more confused when

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Speaker 1: the Palace sent over the royal family's accountant, a man

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Speaker 1: by the name of Claude Palmerow to smooth things over.

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Speaker 3: Prince Albert sends his long time and most trusted advisor

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Speaker 3: to make a financial settlement with the company that lost

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Speaker 3: the bid, which the company rejected and in fact they

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Speaker 3: filed the criminal complaint.

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Speaker 1: The complaint led to a criminal inquiry, which is handled

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Speaker 1: by an investigative judge from France. With fewer than ten

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Speaker 1: thousand nationals, Monaco doesn't have enough citizens to staff its

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Speaker 1: own courts and has a long standing agreement to share

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Speaker 1: civil servants with France. The prince himself is immune from

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Speaker 1: all criminal charges and civil complaints, but his nephews and

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Speaker 1: other entities in Monaco don't have the same protections, and

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Speaker 1: the judge ordered police to search the headquarters of their

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Speaker 1: helicopter company and the offices of Monaco's civil aviation and

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Speaker 1: IT departments. So once the police start looking into the

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Speaker 1: nephew's helicopter company and this deal, what do they find.

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Speaker 3: One of the first things that the authorities find is

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Speaker 3: a series of notes that are kept in the draft

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Speaker 3: folder of an executive's Gmail account, and these documents seemed

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Speaker 3: to show that the company was working with or speaking

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Speaker 3: with the government, long before it was known that the

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Speaker 3: contract was even up.

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Speaker 1: In other words, the documents seemed to show a secret

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Speaker 1: back channel between the palace and the nephew's helicopter company

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Speaker 1: that gave them detailed parameters of what it would take

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Speaker 1: to win the contract, and as far as Anthony and

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Speaker 1: Gaspard could find, the.

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Speaker 3: Rivals didn't have these parameters. They were on the back foot.

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Speaker 3: And what happened was is that Andrea and Pierre's company

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Speaker 3: was able to tame new helicopters much earlier than their

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Speaker 3: rivals could. That was one of the deciding factors the

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Speaker 3: tip things in favor of the Kaisiraki's company. It was

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Speaker 3: an enormous find for the investigators because they were able

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Speaker 3: to approach the executives and say, frankly, what is this,

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Speaker 3: How do you explain this? The executive said that these

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Speaker 3: were his personal reflections. The government says we didn't give

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Speaker 3: them any parameters at all, But to the investigators it's

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Speaker 3: become a pretty critical piece of evidence in their inquiry.

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Speaker 1: So what do the nephews have to say about all this.

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Speaker 3: Well, they have told us in a statement that they've

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Speaker 3: done nothing wrong, that they abide by all of the

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Speaker 3: public rules and fair competition rules in Monaco. So they

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Speaker 3: from their perspective, they've done nothing wrong. In this criminal

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Speaker 3: investigation isn't going to affect them in any way.

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Speaker 1: But the nephews aren't the only ones bringing scrutiny to

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Speaker 1: the palace door. There's another person close to the family

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Speaker 1: who could spell trouble for the Monagaesque royalty, a person

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Speaker 1: who was trusted to handle their discreete affairs. The same

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Speaker 1: guy who was sent to the losing helicopter company to

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Speaker 1: try to smooth things over. The palace accountant we mentioned earlier,

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Speaker 1: Claude Palmyraw.

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Speaker 3: For many years, you know he boy boy. He would

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Speaker 3: do everything from store some of their wealth hidden in Panama.

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Speaker 3: It would balance the accounts of Prince Albert's wife. He

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Speaker 3: was the administrator who signed the paperwork on secret apartments

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Speaker 3: for the royal family. He was basically, you know, their

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Speaker 3: lieutenant for lack of a better word.

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Speaker 1: In twenty twenty one, a lot of dirty laundry was

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Speaker 1: laid out for the world to see when Palmero's emails,

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Speaker 1: along with those of other Monagesque officials, were hacked.

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Speaker 3: Those documents were leaked on the Internet. They were called

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Speaker 3: the Stossier du Roche the Dossiers of the Rock.

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Speaker 2: These emails the leak purported to show him trying to

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Speaker 2: favor some developers over others, basically, you know, abusing in

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Speaker 2: a way his position behind the scenes. He obviously denies it.

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Speaker 1: This week was explosive, and as pressure from the fallout

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Speaker 1: mounted in the years that followed, Prince Albert the Second

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Speaker 1: reassessed his relationship with his once trusted advisor.

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Speaker 2: In May twenty twenty three, you could sense that Albert

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Speaker 2: was changing his mind about Palmarrow, and just a month

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Speaker 2: later he had palace guards escored him out of his

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Speaker 2: office and out of the palace, and he's now basically

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Speaker 2: at war with his old employer. Palmarow and Prince Albert

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Speaker 2: have started to litigate and it's quite an incredibly tense

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Speaker 2: moment there. Also due to this, I can only describe

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Speaker 2: it as a divorce.

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Speaker 3: Basically.

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Speaker 2: You know, you've got the Prince who is saying in

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Speaker 2: a criminal complaint that supplored Palmrrow mismanaged his accounts. You've

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Speaker 2: got palm Merrow trying to bring basically Prince Albert to justice.

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Speaker 2: He's suing him him at the European Code of the

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Speaker 2: Human Rights to contest his dismissal, and he's even ladged

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Speaker 2: a criminal complaint against the Prince. It's really nasty.

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Speaker 3: So all of this stuff is swirling around Prince Albert.

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Speaker 3: At the same time, you've got international watchdogs who want

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Speaker 3: to make sure that it's not a backdoor to financial crooks.

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Speaker 3: You've got another separate set of inspectors looking at the palace.

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Speaker 3: You've got your longtime advisor who's on the outs and

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Speaker 3: you're having investigated, and who is suing you. It's the

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Speaker 3: latest scandal for Albert, who's been on the throne for

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Speaker 3: nearly twenty years now, and when he took over, he

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Speaker 3: promised to clean up Monaco's reputation. The French riviera in

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Speaker 3: Monica in particular has long been known as a sunny

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Speaker 3: place for shady people. Well, Albert promised to reform that.

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Speaker 3: In fact, he hasn't. His reign has been tarred by

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Speaker 3: one scandal after another. The investigation of his nephews is

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Speaker 3: only the most recent one. The outside look by inspectors

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Speaker 3: adds enormous pressure on Prince Albert himself and his government

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Speaker 3: to finally, perhaps reform its ways.

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Speaker 1: This has been the big take from Bloomberg News. I'm

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Speaker 1: Sarah Holder. This episode was produced by David Fox, who

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Speaker 1: was edited by Aaron Edwards. It was mixed by Ben O'Brien.

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Speaker 1: It was fact checked by David Fox. Our senior producers

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Speaker 1: are Naomi Shaven and Jill Duddy Carley. We get editorial

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Speaker 1: direction from Elizabeth Ponso, Nicole beemsterbor is our executive producer.

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Speaker 1: Sage Bauman is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Thanks for listening.

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Speaker 1: Please follow and review The Big Take wherever you listen

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Speaker 1: to podcasts. It helps new listeners find the show. We'll

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Speaker 1: be back tomorrow