Speaker 1: Pushkin Hi Hot Money listeners, it's Miles Johnson here, host
Speaker 1: of season two The New Narcos. I'm here to tell
Speaker 1: you to keep an eye on your Hot Money feed.
Speaker 1: My colleagues are currently cooking up a third season of
Speaker 1: the podcast, so watch this space. In the meantime, I
Speaker 1: recently wrote a long read for the FT's weekend magazine,
Speaker 1: which we thought you might like to listen to. It's
Speaker 1: a story about a prince, a contested royal fortune, and
Speaker 1: the deal he struck with a notorious billionaire to get
Speaker 1: hold of his inheritance. It features international corruption, missing Caravaggio's
Speaker 1: espionage operations, daring cross border escapes, and even a cameo
Speaker 1: from JR.
Speaker 2: From Dallas.
Speaker 1: It's called the Fugitive Prints. And just for our Hot
Speaker 1: Money listeners, here's the audio version of that article. And
Speaker 1: if you want to enjoy more articles like this one,
Speaker 1: for a limited time only, you can save forty percent
Speaker 1: on an annual Digital Financial Time subscription. Go to fd
Speaker 1: dot com forward slash Prince offer to sign up.
Speaker 2: Part one Inheritance.
Speaker 1: In September nineteen forty, King Carol Second's armoured train hurtled
Speaker 1: towards Romania's western border a board with his paramour, a
Speaker 1: small group of quarters as three poodles, and thirty truckloads
Speaker 1: of the royal fortune. For years, the Romanian monarch had
Speaker 1: held out against pressure from Hitler, but now his reign
Speaker 1: was over. The only question was whether he would escape alive.
Speaker 1: At Timasaura, several miles down the line, a Fascist death.
Speaker 2: Squad would be waiting with machine guns.
Speaker 1: Not stopping, the train ran the risk of being derailed
Speaker 1: by dynamite. Stopping probably meant being executed. Before the war,
Speaker 1: Carol had been famous for loving women, hunting, and fast cars,
Speaker 1: and for spending lavishly.
Speaker 2: On all three. He'd been a playboy and a wild card.
Speaker 1: Now he gave the train operator one command, full speed ahead.
Speaker 1: As the train flew through Timosaura station, gunfire shattered the
Speaker 1: carriage windows. The king and his passengers threw themselves to
Speaker 1: the floor, ducking for their lives, until moments later the
Speaker 1: noise faded into the distance. Eventually they reached the border.
Speaker 1: Carol lived the rest of his life in exile, spending
Speaker 1: his last years in a villa in Portugal, much like
Speaker 1: other fallen European kings such as Umberto thecond of Italy
Speaker 1: and an array of counts and countesses displaced by the war. Carol,
Speaker 1: who died in nineteen fifty three, didn't live long enough
Speaker 1: to see the rise of Nikolai Chiocescu's communist dictator. After
Speaker 1: the end of Romania's monarchy, the new regime seized the
Speaker 1: immense wealth Carol had left behind, worth the equivalent of
Speaker 1: billions of euros today. Among other treasures, this included extravagant palaces,
Speaker 1: vast tracts of land, and vaults of gold. Many of
Speaker 1: the prize possessions Carol managed to flee with, including one
Speaker 1: of the largest rare stamp collections in the world, were
Speaker 1: sold off in exile, but some treasures, including forty old
Speaker 1: master paintings by Caravaggio, Grembrand, Breugel and el Greco, seemingly vanished.
Speaker 1: It was a loss that anybody would mourn, but for
Speaker 1: one man, there was a part of King Carol the
Speaker 1: Second's inheritance more valuable than anything his name. That was
Speaker 1: something he'd spent his entire adult life trying to reclaim.
Speaker 1: In a final desperate attempt to get it, he would
Speaker 1: strike an audacious deal with a crew of international businessmen
Speaker 1: and convicted criminals that ultimately led to exile and infamy.
Speaker 2: His given name is Paul. To his friends, he's Prince Paul. Today.
Speaker 1: He's in his seventies and a flash of gray runs
Speaker 1: through his slick back hair, but his bushy eyebrows and
Speaker 1: pouty lips retains some boyishness. He favors the uniform of
Speaker 1: European playboys, tailored sports jackets and luxury loafers. He speaks
Speaker 1: in the clipped, French accented manner of someone who attended
Speaker 1: a continental finishing school. Depending on who you believe, his
Speaker 1: true name is Prince Paul Philippe al Romanee, Crown Prince
Speaker 1: of Romania, grandson of King Carol the Second and a
Speaker 1: direct descendant of Queen Victoria of England and Czar Alexander
Speaker 1: the Second of Russia. To his enemies, he's simply Paul Lambrino,
Speaker 1: a fantasist who, even after everything that happened, claims airship
Speaker 1: to a non existent throne. Paul, who was born in
Speaker 1: France in nineteen forty eight, grew up with his father's stories.
Speaker 1: He was told about Romania's fairy tale palaces, lustrous countryside
Speaker 1: and peasant folk songs. It sounded like a distant fantasy,
Speaker 1: but it was also a place of sorrow. It was
Speaker 1: the site of an injustice that cast a shadow over
Speaker 1: his entire life. Romania, his father explained, wasn't just their
Speaker 1: lost country, it was their stolen kingdom, and Paul was
Speaker 1: a prince. Paul's lineage stemmed from a royal controversy dating
Speaker 1: back more than a century. When Carol was still a
Speaker 1: hard partying heir to the throne, he eloped with a
Speaker 1: beautiful young socialite named Zizi Lambrino. Carol's father was furious,
Speaker 1: and he ordered the union annulled. The young Carol was
Speaker 1: temporarily banished to a monastery and forbidden from ever seeing
Speaker 1: her again, but Lambrino was pregnant with a son Paul's father.
Speaker 1: On his Romanian birth certificate, the space for the father's
Speaker 1: name should have read King Carol Second, but it was blank.
Speaker 1: The surname was listed as Lambrino, legally recording his illegitimacy.
Speaker 1: As a teen, Paul was packed off to Britain, where
Speaker 1: he attended Millfield Boarding School in Somerset, before deciding to
Speaker 1: skip university to make his way in nineteen sixties London.
Speaker 1: He worked variously as a fashion photographer and an art dealer,
Speaker 1: living in a flat off the King's Road in Chelsea.
Speaker 1: In his late twenties, Paul began to have vivid dreams
Speaker 1: about his grandfather after the Lambrino affair. Carol had been
Speaker 1: briefly married to a Greek princess with whom he'd had
Speaker 1: another son, Michael. This legitimate heir had never acknowledged Paul
Speaker 1: or his father, so in the late nineteen seventies, Paul
Speaker 1: traveled to Portugal to seek out the woman who'd been
Speaker 1: Carol's wife at the end of his life life she
Speaker 1: was still living in the villa, but when Paul got
Speaker 1: there he found she was gravely ill.
Speaker 2: On her deathbed, she left him Carol's.
Speaker 1: Gold signet ring, embossed with the symbol of the Romanian
Speaker 1: monarchy surrounded by a crown of thorns. Paul began wearing
Speaker 1: it religiously. Then one evening in the early nineteen nineties,
Speaker 1: Paul met his own princess. He was at a black
Speaker 1: tie charity ball in London when he spotted her, an
Speaker 1: elegant woman in a long Valentino gown with dark hair
Speaker 1: and a regal bearing. Her name was Leah Triff, She
Speaker 1: was an American divorcee in her early forties who dressed
Speaker 1: like Elizabeth Taylor and talked like Joan Rivers. She was
Speaker 1: at the party playing hooky from her postgraduate studies at
Speaker 1: Oxford Paul until then a resolute bachelor was instantly taken.
Speaker 1: They had plenty in common. Leah was of Romanian Herite two.
Speaker 1: They were both shameless name droppers, referencing famous acquaintances from
Speaker 1: the Dalai Lama to the Sultan of Brunei, and both
Speaker 1: had made regrettable mistakes in their youth, but it may
Speaker 1: have been their differences that truly bonded them. Leah was
Speaker 1: born in the late nineteen forties and grew up in Dearborn, Michigan.
Speaker 1: In her early twenties, she married the famously pugnacious San
Speaker 1: Francisco celebrity attorney Melvin Belli, who represented Jajar Gabour and
Speaker 1: the Rolling Stones. He was forty two years her senior.
Speaker 1: Leah became a well known San Francisco socialite, attending art
Speaker 1: openings in white cocked hats and mustard suede suits, and
Speaker 1: throwing parties in the eighteenth floor suite of the Intercontinental.
Speaker 1: Mark Hopkins hotel for guests such as Joe DiMaggio and
Speaker 1: Rudolph Nuriev. In nineteen eighty four, she unsuccessfully ran as
Speaker 1: a Democrat for the California State Senate and was later
Speaker 1: fined for making disguise campaign contributions to herself. That didn't
Speaker 1: stop her from working as an adviser in both the
Speaker 1: Carter and Reagan Whitehouses in the mid nineteen eighties. The
Speaker 1: marriage ended in a spectacularly acrimonious public divorce. Leah said
Speaker 1: bell I had emotionally and physically abused her. Bell I
Speaker 1: accused his wife of having multiple affairs, including with the
Speaker 1: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, which she denied. Bell I later claimed
Speaker 1: a friend of hers had threatened to kill him, and
Speaker 1: that Leah had thrown their dog off the Golden Gate Bridge,
Speaker 1: which he also denied. Bell I was thrown out of
Speaker 1: court during the hearings for claiming the judge has slept
Speaker 1: of his wife too. The spectacle filled so many columnachres
Speaker 1: that Leah's name ended up as an answer to a
Speaker 1: question on the game show Jeopardy.
Speaker 2: By the time Paul.
Speaker 1: And Liah met, she longed to get far away from
Speaker 1: the gossip and scandal Paul had always wanted to the
Speaker 1: world to recognize him for who he believed he was,
Speaker 1: a prince, and Leah, glamorous, charming and fearless, made him
Speaker 1: feel like one. The couple married in nineteen ninety six,
Speaker 1: convinced they could make each other's dreams come true. Soon,
Speaker 1: Prince Paul and his wife, now calling herself Princess Leah,
Speaker 1: moved to Romania permanently. The Revolutions of nineteen eighty nine
Speaker 1: had swept away the Communist dictatorship and left a fledgling republic.
Speaker 1: Although he and Leah barely knew the country and there
Speaker 1: was no chance of the monarchy being restored, Paul was
Speaker 1: convinced that Romania was their destiny. They settled in Bucharest
Speaker 1: and began courting public attention. During his dictatorship, Choucescu had
Speaker 1: allowed only one Western television show to be broadcast, Dallas.
Speaker 1: The idea was that the gaudy lifestyles and petulant feuding
Speaker 1: of Texan oil barons would demonstrate the greed and decadence
Speaker 1: of America. The idea backfired. Dallas was a smash hit
Speaker 1: and j r ewing Its star character, played by Larry Hagman,
Speaker 1: became a national idol. At one point, Lea says she
Speaker 1: flew into London, where Hagman happened to be, and talked
Speaker 1: him into coming. But you know, Princess, I'm kinda retired.
Speaker 2: He told her. Larry, it's going to be the second coming.
Speaker 2: Believe me, she said. Bringing Jr.
Speaker 1: To Romania made headlines, but it didn't bring Paul any
Speaker 1: closer to being recognized. Early on, he made a pilgrimage
Speaker 1: to Pelej's Castle, a neo Renaissance palace on the medieval
Speaker 1: route linking Transylvania to Wallachia. Paul's ancestors had constructed the
Speaker 1: Gothic spires that still overlook the Carpathian Mountains. Paul had
Speaker 1: only ever seen them in photographs, but when he got there,
Speaker 1: government officials would didn't let him in. His elderly uncle, Michael,
Speaker 1: was still living in exile in Switzerland at the time,
Speaker 1: but he too had begun making trips home. They'd never spoken,
Speaker 1: but Paul held out hope for some kind of reconciliation.
Speaker 1: He sent Michael a heartfelt letter by registered posts. There
Speaker 1: was no response. On the occasions that Paul and Lea
Speaker 1: found themselves at the same events as Michael or his children.
Speaker 2: They were ignored. Then, in the.
Speaker 1: Run up to Romania's accessions of the EU in the
Speaker 1: mid two thousands, the country passed laws allowing people who'd
Speaker 1: lost property or other assets during communism to try and
Speaker 1: reclaim them.
Speaker 2: Suddenly there was a path. If Paul could.
Speaker 1: Convince Romanian courts that he had a legitimate claim, he
Speaker 1: wouldn't only become wealthy, he might force his a strange
Speaker 1: family to finally recognize him. By early two thousand and six,
Speaker 1: trying to live like a prince and a princess was
Speaker 1: becoming a burden. Paul and Leah had been in Romania
Speaker 1: for several years, supported by a meager nuity provided by
Speaker 1: his father. The couple's attempts to jumpstart the complex reclamation
Speaker 1: process had stalled. That's when Paul was first contacted by
Speaker 1: a man who claimed he could turn his dreams into reality.
Speaker 1: When they met in person in a lawyer's office in
Speaker 1: downtown Bucharest, the man introduced himself as Remus Treca. In
Speaker 1: his thirties, Treaca was tanned, with a chiseled jaw and
Speaker 1: a whiff of money. He'd made millions in the Romanian
Speaker 1: telecom sector, and he enjoyed the good life, expensive suits,
Speaker 1: fine cigars, and rare wine. He owned a yacht, which
Speaker 1: he named after his wife, and sailed around Monte Carlo.
Speaker 2: His estate in Romania.
Speaker 1: Was equipped with a helipad, an Olympic sized swimming pool,
Speaker 1: and a town for the kids. Treaca told Paul that
Speaker 1: he represented a group of anonymous international investors which controlled
Speaker 1: an offshore company called Reciplia.
Speaker 2: This consortium had.
Speaker 1: Become aware of Paul's claim and was interested in partnering.
Speaker 2: Reciplia had the resources.
Speaker 1: Treeca assured Paul to hire the best lawyers and was
Speaker 1: willing to pay him several million euros upfront, in addition
Speaker 1: to a substantial monthly allowance and a luxury car. This
Speaker 1: was money that would allow Paul to finally live like
Speaker 1: a prince. In exchange, Reciplia wanted Paul to hand over
Speaker 1: fifty percent of any royal assets they won. He didn't
Speaker 1: like the idea of handing over such a large amount
Speaker 1: of his inheritance to people. He didn't know that Paul
Speaker 1: could see without heavyweight assistance, he might end up with nothing.
Speaker 1: It would take several years for Paul to find out
Speaker 1: that reciply A's large at financial backer was a man
Speaker 1: named Benny Steinmetz. The Israeli billionaire, then in his fifties,
Speaker 1: had piercing blue eyes and a seemingly insatiable appetite for
Speaker 1: making high risk deals in extremely corrupt countries. He'd inherited
Speaker 1: his family's diamond business and expanded from selling precious stones
Speaker 1: to sourcing them directly in Africa. Steinmetz made headlines around
Speaker 1: the world in two thousand and eight for securing a
Speaker 1: vast iron ore mining concession in Guinea with terms so
Speaker 1: favorable that rivals were left wondering how he'd pulled it off.
Speaker 1: Dubbed the deal of the Century, it netted a staggering
Speaker 1: profit of several billion dollars in less than two years
Speaker 1: after his company flipped a stake in the project to
Speaker 1: the Brazilian miner Varleet. After that, says one person who
Speaker 1: knows him well, Benny was always looking for a lot
Speaker 1: of upside. Guys like Benny, they don't care about a
Speaker 1: twenty percent return. They're looking for huge bets, a minimum
Speaker 1: of ten times or ideally thirty times on their money.
Speaker 1: The Prince Paul deal promised exactly that, even if Reciplyia's
Speaker 1: upfront costs for lawyers and paus walking around money reached
Speaker 1: upwards of twenty million euros. The potential payout would still
Speaker 1: be immense. An initial assessment found the Romanian royal fortune
Speaker 1: could be worth as much as one billion dollars. At
Speaker 1: one stage, there was even the idea that the country's
Speaker 1: gold reserves belonged to the royal family. The Steinmetz associate said,
Speaker 1: like how Congo belonged to King Leopold of Belgium. Benny
Speaker 1: looked at the underlying assets and the value is there,
Speaker 1: he said. The past few decades have not been particularly
Speaker 1: glorious ones for European monarchs and former royals, with most
Speaker 1: restitution claims faltering. In two thousand and two, Greece's deposed
Speaker 1: King Constantine the Second was awarded a tiny fraction of
Speaker 1: the three hundred and twenty million pounds and seized the
Speaker 1: states he claimed to be owed by the government. Vittorio Emanuele,
Speaker 1: son of Umberto the Second, punched his cousin in the
Speaker 1: face to the party in two thousand and four during
Speaker 1: a row over which of them was the true heir
Speaker 1: to Italy's non existent throne. He later sued the state
Speaker 1: for more than two hundred million euros of confiscated property
Speaker 1: and lost. Juan Carlos, the First of Spain was forced
Speaker 1: to abdicate in twenty fourteen after a string of financial scandals,
Speaker 1: and last year, the heirs of Germany's Kaiservilhelm the Second
Speaker 1: gave up on a nearly decade long battle to regain
Speaker 1: hundreds of works of art, the imperial crown and scepter,
Speaker 1: and various castles. After several months, considering Reciplia's audacious offer,
Speaker 1: Paul decided to sign the agreement. Steinmetz would provide the cash. Treaca,
Speaker 1: the flashy businessman, was going to be on the ground
Speaker 1: in Romania with the lawyers and local authorities, but to
Speaker 1: succeed they needed to recruit a number of other specialists,
Speaker 1: each with a different set of highly valuable skills. First
Speaker 1: was Tao Silberstein, a former Israeli Special forces commando turned
Speaker 1: international political consultant. He'd built a reputation for being cunning
Speaker 1: and sometimes ruthless, cutting his teeth working for the US
Speaker 1: posters and consultants James Carville and Stanley Greenberg, and later
Speaker 1: advising politicians in Austria, Ukraine, and Romania.
Speaker 2: Silberstein's role was to keep.
Speaker 1: Steinmetz updated on what was happening and to troubleshoot the unexpected.
Speaker 1: Tao is one of the brightest people I've ever met,
Speaker 1: said one person who knows him. He's an expert and
Speaker 1: getting inside people's heads. Then there was Robert Rossu, a
Speaker 1: partner at one of Romania's most prestigious law firms, picked
Speaker 1: to lead the legal.
Speaker 2: Charge on behind the Prince.
Speaker 1: Rossu's firm spent weeks doing extensive due diligence on the
Speaker 1: strength of the claims, producing the report that pegged the
Speaker 1: assets that Prince Paul had a claim to but one
Speaker 1: billion dollars. Once assembled, the team got to work on
Speaker 1: what they code named Project Prince Treeca was busy from
Speaker 1: the start. Working with Rosu, he convinced a Romanian court
Speaker 1: to hand over Paul's share of Snagov Forest, a forty
Speaker 1: seven hector nature reserve formerly owned by the royal family.
Speaker 1: Project Prince soon had a far more valuable target, a
Speaker 1: vast tract of land in the north of Bucharest called
Speaker 1: the Banessa Royal Farm, formerly belonging to King Carol. The
Speaker 1: Second Banessa, was an agricultural estate that had once served
Speaker 1: the royal household. If that land could be redeveloped, it
Speaker 1: could be worth hundreds of millions of euros. There was
Speaker 1: one significant hurdle. The land was occupied by a state
Speaker 1: research body, the Bucharest Plant Protection Research and Development Institute.
Speaker 1: Its director, an elderly man named Horria Iliescue, feared the
Speaker 1: institute would be shut down if the land was signed
Speaker 1: over Under the obscure regulation involved, Iliescue's refusal would have
Speaker 1: been enough to block the deal. Wooing him took some time. Then,
Speaker 1: early one morning in September two thousand and eight, Treca
Speaker 1: noticed he had missed numerous calls. The businessman had invited
Speaker 1: Iliescu to take a cruise on his yacht in Monte
Speaker 1: Carlo during an upcoming trip to the south of France.
Speaker 1: Good morning, Treeca said. When he called back, I apologize.
Speaker 1: I was playing tennis. I called several times, because this
Speaker 1: is what I call being polite, Iliescu replied. The director,
Speaker 1: seemingly nervous and bumbling, launched into a rambling explanation of
Speaker 1: telephone Ettiger. Despite having spent months refusing to countenance to transfer,
Speaker 1: Iliescu was now eagerly looking forward to his trip with Trica,
Speaker 1: he wanted to confirm the details of his hotel in France.
Speaker 1: Not long afterwards, Iliescue got on a flight from Bucharest
Speaker 1: de Nie, where he was picked up in a Mercedes
Speaker 1: Vito Van by Treeca's driver and taken to Monaco. Once there,
Speaker 1: he and Treca had lunch and sailed on Treca's yacht.
Speaker 1: Exactly what happened on the boat is unclear, but after
Speaker 1: returning to Romania, Iliescu appears to have undergone a complete
Speaker 1: change of opinion about signing over Vanessa Royal Farm. Iliescu
Speaker 1: died of natural causes not long afterwards. Treca denies that
Speaker 1: he paid for Iliescu's trip to France.
Speaker 2: Paul meanwhile, was enjoying the lifestyle of a true prince.
Speaker 1: Flushed with his recipliar allowance, he and Leah hired a
Speaker 1: chauffeur to.
Speaker 2: Shuttle them around Boukarest.
Speaker 1: Two people who knew him around this time said Paul
Speaker 1: had also started to frequent exclusive private members clubs in London,
Speaker 1: such as five Hartford Street and Mayfair. There was something though,
Speaker 1: that money couldn't fix the indignity of being called Lambrino.
Speaker 1: At one point, Paul had traveled to a public records
Speaker 1: office in Central Book Arrest in search of his father's
Speaker 1: birth certificate.
Speaker 2: Accompanied by his.
Speaker 1: Lawyer, Paul marched in and asked to see the document.
Speaker 1: The line that should have affirmed paternity was there, just
Speaker 1: as blank as he'd been told. In small letters, he
Speaker 1: wrote in the name King carolcond this little act of
Speaker 1: defiance hadn't changed anything, but winning Vanessa would. That would
Speaker 1: put Project Prints on the path to reclaiming Paul's share.
Speaker 1: In September two thousand and eight, the ord of the
Speaker 1: Research Institute voted to allow the return of the land.
Speaker 1: The following January, Vanessa Royal Farm was officially transferred to Reciplia.
Speaker 1: The feeling of triumph didn't last. Some members of Project
Speaker 1: Prince were becoming suspicious of one another. Some worried that
Speaker 1: Treeca was skimming money from the operation, something he strongly denied.
Speaker 1: Paul also started to wonder if something was off. Rather
Speaker 1: than selling Vanessa and distributing the prophets, Reciplia told him
Speaker 1: it wanted to develop the land instead delaying his payout.
Speaker 1: Paul and Leah complained to Silberstein, the political consultant. He
Speaker 1: was busy trying to keep the couple plicated by getting
Speaker 1: them favorable coverage in the Romanian press. In October twenty eleven,
Speaker 1: Silberstein rang up a friendly journalist, Listen, you have to
Speaker 1: help more with the princess, he said. The fact that
Speaker 1: she's nagging, it's not helpful for the project, you know.
Speaker 1: Paul started to notice people following him and his wife
Speaker 1: around Bukarest. Then he began to suspect that Reciplia had
Speaker 1: ex Mossad officers on its payroll. They, he said, told
Speaker 1: us on one point they were there to make us
Speaker 1: feel safe, but they were there to find out our weaknesses,
Speaker 1: he said. Steinmetz denied employing any former intelligence officers during
Speaker 1: Project Prince, calling it a blatant lie and another deceitful
Speaker 1: rumor aimed at conveying false impressions to keep.
Speaker 2: A lid on things.
Speaker 1: Silberstein decided to reveal who was really behind Project Prince.
Speaker 1: He rang, Leah, Okay, I want to do something, he said.
Speaker 1: I want to bring someone you've never met before with me,
Speaker 1: someone who's invested everything in the company. It's mister Steinmetz.
Speaker 1: He came to Romania on a special occasion that evening.
Speaker 1: Paul and Leah met with Steinmetz at their lawyer's book
Speaker 1: Arest office. Paul recollected telling the Israeli about his concerns.
Speaker 1: We don't get what's happening. We don't know what's going on,
Speaker 1: he said. Paul remembered Steinmetz's calming the couple's worries. Steinmetz
Speaker 1: disputed this account of the meeting, saying it was a
Speaker 1: courtesy visit of maybe two, three or four minutes.
Speaker 2: A few weeks.
Speaker 1: Later, Silberstein was dismayed to find the meeting had not
Speaker 1: had the intended effect the Prince an alarm, Silberstein told
Speaker 1: his friend over the phone, had started a war with us.
Speaker 1: Convinced he was being conned, Paul was threatening to report
Speaker 1: Silberstein and the rest of the team to the police.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine Silberstein raised down the phone after working
Speaker 1: five and a half years for these people, helping them everywhere,
Speaker 1: paying five million in cash on their behalf. When I
Speaker 1: met them, they were completely broke. Completely. Everything you see
Speaker 1: is our money project. Prince Silberstein worried was falling apart.
Speaker 1: He had no idea how right he was. Laura Kadruta
Speaker 1: Caves didn't look like the person Romania's matro politicians and
Speaker 1: gangster's most feared. In her early forties, with jet black
Speaker 1: hair cut into an anna winter bob, she often wore
Speaker 1: pink lipstick. Caves had been Romania's youngest ever prosecutor general.
Speaker 1: Then in twenty thirteen, she was appointed to lead a
Speaker 1: new anti graft office called the National Anti Corruption Directorate.
Speaker 1: Her mandate was to route out high level crimes in
Speaker 1: one of the EU's most corrupt countries, and she moved fast.
Speaker 1: In her first two years on the job, Cavesy indicted
Speaker 1: fourteen current or former members of Parliament, four government ministers,
Speaker 1: the mayor of Bucharest, and stunning the country the prime minister.
Speaker 1: It was lonely work. Cavesy, who'd grown up in a
Speaker 1: small Transylvanian town, was known to say she didn't have friends,
Speaker 1: just acquaintances. She often walked alone around Bucharest, watched over
Speaker 1: by state security agents. The Prime minister, who her investigation
Speaker 1: had forced out of office, claimed that she was trying
Speaker 1: to make a name by inventing and imagining facts that
Speaker 1: Kavasi believed she was fighting for the soul of her country.
Speaker 1: For the first time in Romania's modern history, the powerful
Speaker 1: were being held to account.
Speaker 2: Kavesi is currently serving as the EU's first Chief Prosecutor.
Speaker 1: They didn't know it, but Kvasi had the members of
Speaker 1: Project Prints in her sites. Recording devices had been installed
Speaker 1: in Paul and Leah's home, as well as on the
Speaker 1: phone lines of every other member of the Project. Agents
Speaker 1: with Romania's intelligence service, the SRI were following their every move,
Speaker 1: having come to believe the Project Prince entered a national
Speaker 1: security threat. The spies had shown Cavesy what they deemed
Speaker 1: proof of a criminal plot by foreigners to defraud the state.
Speaker 1: In late twenty fifteen, Cavesy appeared on national television to
Speaker 1: announce a sweeping new indictment. Prince Paul, Treaca, Steinmetz Silberstein
Speaker 1: and others, she said, had been charged with establishing a
Speaker 1: criminal group to bribe and corrupt public officials, all of
Speaker 1: it in what she said were bogus inheritance claims. The
Speaker 1: damages the group had inflicted on the state from reclaiming
Speaker 1: Vanessa and the other land exceeded one hundred million euros.
Speaker 1: It was an enormous amount, Cavesi said on air. It
Speaker 1: would be the equivalent of the allowance that approximately one
Speaker 1: million children in Romania could receive for one year.
Speaker 2: She said.
Speaker 1: Paul, who come to reclaim his lost homeland, was about
Speaker 1: to become one of its most wanted fugitives. Part two, Runaway.
Speaker 1: It was five thirty am on a Sunday in December
Speaker 1: twenty twenty when men arrived at Paul and Leah's door
Speaker 1: in book Arest. Leah was awoken by the buzzer and
Speaker 1: the sound of voices on the other side of the intercom.
Speaker 1: Five policemen were outside, and they were looking for Paul.
Speaker 1: She opened the front gate and asked to see some identification.
Speaker 1: They began to rush from room to room, searching under
Speaker 1: beds and inside The couple's walking safe but her husband
Speaker 1: wasn't there. Leah knew she had to warn him. Cavasi
Speaker 1: had been pursuing the members of Project Prints for a while.
Speaker 1: Leah picked up a phone, suspecting that every line in
Speaker 1: the house was Wiatt hated darling. She said when she
Speaker 1: got through to Paul, stay calm. There's this huge, huge confusion.
Speaker 1: You cannot leave for Romania. They will arrest you. I
Speaker 1: can't give you any more information, but please please get
Speaker 1: a lawyer. Then she hung up on the other end
Speaker 1: of the line.
Speaker 2: Paul was stunned.
Speaker 1: He put the phone down and sat alone in his
Speaker 1: Lisbon hotel room, grappling with the fact that he was
Speaker 1: now an international fugitive. If he stayed in Portugal, he
Speaker 1: would probably be arrested and eventually sent back to Romania.
Speaker 1: So Prince Paul, direct descendant of Queen Victoria of England
Speaker 1: and Czar Alexander the Second of Russia, decided to Lamin. First,
Speaker 1: he had to get out of Portugal as fast as possible.
Speaker 2: The airport was too risky.
Speaker 1: Paul went to an ATM and took out several thousand euros,
Speaker 1: stuffing them in his pocket. Whatever came next, credit cards
Speaker 1: would leave a trail. Paul hailed a taxi and asked
Speaker 1: the driver would you be okay to go to Madrid.
Speaker 1: The six hour trip across an international border wasn't exactly
Speaker 1: a normal fare, but the bemused Cabby checked his schedule
Speaker 1: and agreed. As they sped off, Paul ran through his options.
Speaker 1: He couldn't book a hotel using his real name. Where
Speaker 1: could he go.
Speaker 2: He knew some.
Speaker 1: People he trusted in Naples, but getting there required crossing
Speaker 1: from Spain to France and then into Italy. Without attracting attention.
Speaker 1: He feared the Romanian arrest warrant could already have been
Speaker 1: sent to every European police force. If so, every border
Speaker 1: was a potential trap. Once his taxi arrived in Madrid,
Speaker 1: Paul got out, handed the driver five hundred duas in
Speaker 1: cash and hailed another cap. The switch might throw off
Speaker 1: anyone following, he thought. Soon he was headed to Monte Carlo,
Speaker 1: a day long drive. As the hours passed in the
Speaker 1: back of the taxi, Paul thought about Lea, When would
Speaker 1: he be able to see her again. He thought about Romania,
Speaker 1: the homeland he'd spent his life dreaming about and was
Speaker 1: now trying to put him in prison. And he thought
Speaker 1: of his grandfather, King Carol, who had fled across Europe.
Speaker 2: Eighty years earlier.
Speaker 1: About an hour outside Monaco, Paul saw what he was
Speaker 1: dreading a police checkpoint. It was too late to turn around,
Speaker 1: so the taxi pulled over and a French officer instructed
Speaker 1: Paul to hand over his papers. He gave his British passport,
Speaker 1: hoping that the arrest warrant was issued on his Romanian documents.
Speaker 1: Where are you going, the policeman asked, sheepishly, Paul said
Speaker 1: he was on his way to Italy. You're going to
Speaker 1: Italy by taxi. Paul's heart was pounding as he confirmed
Speaker 1: he was. The police officer walked away with the documents.
Speaker 1: While Paul waited. All he could do was silently reassure himself,
Speaker 1: at least in France, better to be arrested here than
Speaker 1: in Romania. The police officer returned to the taxi slowly.
Speaker 1: Then he handed over the passport and waved them on.
Speaker 1: As Paul snaked down the Mediterranean coast towards Naples. The
Speaker 1: other members of Project Prints were in total disarray. After
Speaker 1: several years battling Covesi's chargers, some of them had been
Speaker 1: convicted and sentenced to prison in a country with some
Speaker 1: of the most notoriously brutal jails in Europe. Into polar
Speaker 1: rest warrants had been issued for Paul as well as
Speaker 1: Steinmetz and Silberstein had been sentenced to five years in
Speaker 1: prison each. Steinmetz was in Dubai at the time, out
Speaker 1: of reach, but Treeca was already in a Romanian jail
Speaker 1: serving a seven year sentence. Even Rosu, the high powered lawyer,
Speaker 1: had been convicted. Treeca told me that he had only
Speaker 1: ever acted legally during his work on Project Prints, and
Speaker 1: that the conviction was unjust, and that there were serious
Speaker 1: problems and errors with the evidence that was used against him,
Speaker 1: including the use of wire taps gathered by Romania's secret
Speaker 1: intelligence service. Treeca also alleged that an unnamed Romanian prosecutor
Speaker 1: threatened him to gather evidence against other members of the team.
Speaker 1: The prosecutor told me that he knows I am innocent,
Speaker 1: but that he will go ahead with the case if
Speaker 1: I do not accept to make allegations against certain persons
Speaker 1: of interest to him, Treaca said. Silberstein declined to comment
Speaker 1: in book Arest. Leah had no way of contacting her
Speaker 1: husband or even knowing where he was. Then a coded
Speaker 1: message came through passed from Paul via a lawyer, reading
Speaker 1: I am in the place where I was a child.
Speaker 1: She was overcome with relief, realizing that Paul was in France.
Speaker 1: He traveled all the way across Europe in taxis to Naples,
Speaker 1: only to decide he would be safest in the country
Speaker 1: of his birth.
Speaker 2: After all, he was hiding in a village.
Speaker 1: Leah was still stuck in Romania, being hounded by the
Speaker 1: police about his whereabouts, she said. The authorities told her
Speaker 1: that she would be liable for the costs of pursuing
Speaker 1: her fugitive husband for as much as nine million euros.
Speaker 1: The house she owned with Paul was later repossessed by
Speaker 1: the bank to be sold for the value of the mortgage.
Speaker 1: Then men arrived to take the furniture, but Leah vowed
Speaker 1: to do whatever she could. They didn't understand that even
Speaker 1: though it was blessed to be born an educated part
Speaker 1: of my life in America, I've also got a stronger backbone,
Speaker 1: she told me. I'm not able to be broken. Project
Speaker 1: Prince was not the only one of Benny Steinmetz's high risk,
Speaker 1: high reward deals going bad. In fact, his legal problems
Speaker 1: around the world seemed to be spiraling out of control.
Speaker 1: Several years before the Romanian indictment, a former employee of
Speaker 1: Steinmetz's who had worked on the Guinea mining deal, was
Speaker 1: arrested by the FBI. Federal agents had secretly recorded him
Speaker 1: plotting to destroy evidence suggesting millions of dollars in bribes
Speaker 1: had been paid by Steinmetz's company to one of the
Speaker 1: ex wives of Guinea's former dictator. The Guinean government then
Speaker 1: accused Steinmetz's bribery and said it would strip the rights
Speaker 1: to the mine from his company and Valet, the Brazilian miner.
Speaker 1: The US probe into the Guinea deal hadn't implicated Steinmetz directly,
Speaker 1: but he had been charged by a Swiss court for
Speaker 1: bribery relating to the deal. He appeared to sink under
Speaker 1: the weight of a growing number of civil and criminal
Speaker 1: cases brought against him. In twenty eighteen, Steinmetz's holding company
Speaker 1: put itself into voluntary administration to try and protect its
Speaker 1: assets from further legal claims. Then Varlet accused Steinmetz of
Speaker 1: deliberately misleading it into a deal he knew was tainted
Speaker 1: by corruption. Varlet launched a claim for billions and damages
Speaker 1: in courts in London and New York. By December twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one, a year after the police arrived at Paul
Speaker 1: and Leah's door, Steinmetz had been arrested in Greece on
Speaker 1: a European arrest warrant issued by Romania and barred from
Speaker 1: leaving the country before an extradition hearing in Romania. Someone
Speaker 1: had been trying to hit back. Shortly after Cavesy appeared
Speaker 1: on national television to announce the Project Prince Indictment. An
Speaker 1: ex colleague contacted her about a strange experience. The colleague
Speaker 1: had been approached by a recruitment agency based in the
Speaker 1: UK about a lucrative job, but when she went for
Speaker 1: an interview, they only seemed to be interested in asking
Speaker 1: about working with Cavesy. Then someone using a British number
Speaker 1: rang up Cavasi's elderly farm at home, claiming they were
Speaker 1: organizing a conference in London they wanted to pay him
Speaker 1: to attend. Her father, who didn't speak English, was suspicious
Speaker 1: and told his daughter. More members of her family were
Speaker 1: approached by odd sounding outfits, seemingly using job offers as
Speaker 1: a pretext to gather information about Kvasi. In March twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: two athletic young men, one with a Belgian passport and
Speaker 1: the other an Israeli national, flew into Bucharest's Henry Cowander airport.
Speaker 1: One had reddish brown hair and a beard, and was
Speaker 1: wearing blue jeans, white sneakers and a black jacket. The
Speaker 1: other was dressed all in black apart from a white shirt.
Speaker 1: They checked into a hotel downtown and got to work
Speaker 1: soon and Kevesi began to get security alerts on her
Speaker 1: official and personal email accounts, suggesting someone as trying to
Speaker 1: hack her. The two men were undercover agents dispatched in
Speaker 1: Romania as part of an espionage operation targeting Cavesy called
Speaker 1: Project Tornado. They weren't spies working for a government. They
Speaker 1: were from the Israeli private intelligence firm Black Cube, founded
Speaker 1: in twenty ten. Black Cube advertises itself as being made
Speaker 1: up of a select group of veterans from Israeli elite
Speaker 1: intelligence units. The company became internationally notorious for its work
Speaker 1: on behalf of convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein during his
Speaker 1: attempts to stifle investigations into his crimes. Steinmetz has been
Speaker 1: one of Black Cube's most important clients. He used undercover
Speaker 1: agents from the firm to secretly record executives from Varlas,
Speaker 1: admitting that they were aware the Guinea deal they were
Speaker 1: suing him over had been.
Speaker 2: Corrupt from the start.
Speaker 1: As a result, Varley eventually withdrew its legal claim against Steinmetz.
Speaker 1: On its website, Black Cube cites its work for Steinmetz,
Speaker 1: which involved a team of twenty agents, as one of
Speaker 1: its most successful cases. Unfortunately, for the two Black Cube agents.
Speaker 1: The Romanian security services had become aware of their presence
Speaker 1: and they were soon arrested. They were later released with
Speaker 1: suspended sentences. What never became clear was who the client
Speaker 1: behind the operation to dig up dirt on Kovesi was.
Speaker 1: Steinmetz was one of several people suspected and investigated by
Speaker 1: the Romanian police's organized crime unit, but the case was
Speaker 1: later closed due to a lack of evidence. Steinmetz denies
Speaker 1: having any role in Black Cube's work in Romania and
Speaker 1: said he had only ever employed the company once. He
Speaker 1: called the suspicions raised against him a clear slander by
Speaker 1: the Romanian authority to justify the prosecution against me, which
Speaker 1: was clearly politically motivated. When Black Cube CEO Dan Zarella
Speaker 1: was interviewed by Romanian police, he gave a puzzling explanation
Speaker 1: as to why his firm had taken on the Caves operation.
Speaker 1: According to a transcript obtained by Haretz, the Israeli newspaper,
Speaker 1: Zarella said the company was hired by a former Romanian
Speaker 1: intelligence officer who claimed that the work they would carry
Speaker 1: out was on behalf of the SRI, the country's spy agency.
Speaker 1: Black Cube later said it was hired by a senior
Speaker 1: official in Romania and fully cooperated with the Romanian authorities
Speaker 1: to solve this matter. In France, Paul had eventually reported
Speaker 1: himself to the authorities and defeated a first request by
Speaker 1: Romania to bring him back to serve out his sentence.
Speaker 1: By April twenty twenty four, Lea had joined him. Emboldened
Speaker 1: by his victory, Paul decided to accept an invitation from
Speaker 1: an order of the Knights of Malta to visit the
Speaker 1: Mediterranean island. His lawyers warned him he was taking a
Speaker 1: huge risk, but Paul was certain the Romanian government wouldn't
Speaker 1: try and have him arrested. He flew to Valetta with
Speaker 1: Leah and Pastory immigration without a problem. On their third
Speaker 1: day on the island, three Martes policemen approached Paul and
Speaker 1: arrested him on the orders of the Romanian state. Leah
Speaker 1: watched as her husband was taken away. By that evening,
Speaker 1: Paul was in Corodino Prison, a penitentiary built in the
Speaker 1: nineteenth century under British colonial rule. It was a shock,
Speaker 1: he said, you go from being in a five star
Speaker 1: hotel to being in prison. Paul knew the Romanian state
Speaker 1: would press as hard as possible to have him extradited. Rosu,
Speaker 1: the lawyer convicted for his work on Project Prince, had
Speaker 1: been jailed in conditions he described as a metal cage.
Speaker 1: He was later acquitted and released. In Malta, Paul was
Speaker 1: placed in a section of the jail reserved for high
Speaker 1: profile inmates. One was a computer hacker awaiting extradition to
Speaker 1: the US. Another was the Maltese businessman on trial for
Speaker 1: the murder of the journalist Daphne Caroana Galitzia. During his
Speaker 1: first days, Paul tried to stay calm, like a good
Speaker 1: sovereign and make conversation with the other prisoners. None of
Speaker 1: them seemed to find the presence of a fugitive prints
Speaker 1: on their block particularly remarkable. In the mornings, the prisoners
Speaker 1: played football in the courtyard. Sometimes Paul would watch cable television,
Speaker 1: mostly CNN, but this was difficult as he wasn't allowed
Speaker 1: his metal rimmed glasses in prison, they were deemed a
Speaker 1: security threat. Most days they were served fried food, which
Speaker 1: Paul described as like KFC. He looked forward to thursdays,
Speaker 1: when the inmates were given roast lamb to keep his
Speaker 1: mind occupied. He read the firm by John Grisham and
Speaker 1: bonded with a dutch Man accused of international cocaine trafficking.
Speaker 1: He wasn't too bad, I suppose, Paul told me. He
Speaker 1: took two or three showers a day. Two months passed
Speaker 1: as Paul's lawyers worked to have him released on bail.
Speaker 1: Finally the Maltese authorities agreed. The other inmates applauded as
Speaker 1: Prince Paul walked out of the iron gates of the prison.
Speaker 1: He felt triumphant, even though he knew there was another
Speaker 1: painful way ahead of him, this time to see if
Speaker 1: Maltese judges would side with him or the Romanian state.
Speaker 1: And the first time I met Paul was in early
Speaker 1: August twenty twenty four. We were inside Malta's courts of Justice,
Speaker 1: where I just watched as a judge read out a
Speaker 1: lengthy administrative procedure in Maltese. This resulted in another uncertainty
Speaker 1: laced delay. Paul was under strict bail conditions, reporting to
Speaker 1: the police twice a day. His passport had been temporarily confiscated.
Speaker 1: The next morning we met again at a local hotel.
Speaker 1: Lea and Paul's lawyers were present this time. Paul told
Speaker 1: me he was holding up well and he was relieved
Speaker 1: to be with his family, but he was noticeably shaken.
Speaker 1: At times, he was energized and defiant. At others his
Speaker 1: voice became weary. In court, Paul's Maltese lawyer, Jason as
Speaker 1: a Party, argued that Romania's prisons were so overcrowded and
Speaker 1: dilapidated that it would be an abuse of his client's
Speaker 1: human rights to keep him there. During the hearings, the
Speaker 1: Romanian government sent four officials to Malta to put ford
Speaker 1: its case for extra lighting Paul. It's quite abnormal. As
Speaker 1: a Party told me, I do not recall any case
Speaker 1: where the representatives of the foreign government came over to testify.
Speaker 1: Sitting with him, it was clear that Paul was exhausted.
Speaker 1: He'd fought his entire life to be accepted, yet here
Speaker 1: he was facing disgrace and years behind bars, not as
Speaker 1: Prince Paul of Romania, but as Paul Lambrino Krook. As
Speaker 1: Paul waited to learn his fate, I traveled to Athens
Speaker 1: to meet Steinmetz. Thanks to his project Prince Conviction, Greece
Speaker 1: is one of only three European countries the billionaire can
Speaker 1: travel to without fearing arrest. The Israeli had beaten an
Speaker 1: attempt by the Romanian state to extradite him after he
Speaker 1: was briefly arrested in Athens back in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: We met on a warm summer evening on the terrace
Speaker 1: of a taverna not far from Syntagma Square. It was
Speaker 1: the middle of August and the restaurant was nearly deserted. Later,
Speaker 1: he told me that he never did anything illegal in
Speaker 1: Romania and was never aware of any of his partners
Speaker 1: paying bribes. It was a pure business, he told me.
Speaker 1: Steinmetz's heavily accented English is delivered in the near whisper
Speaker 1: of a man accustomed to those around him falling silent
Speaker 1: when he talks. We do hundreds of deals in different sectors,
Speaker 1: and what we saw was a good financial opportunity. The
Speaker 1: Romanian conviction, Steinmetz told me, was politically motivated by local
Speaker 1: officials who didn't want to see a foreigner succeed. It
Speaker 1: was all fixed in advance, he said. It was a
Speaker 1: rigged game, calling the conviction against him a joke, a
Speaker 1: Romanian joke. In Switzerland, Steinmetz has been convicted for bribery
Speaker 1: in one of Africa's poorest countries. He is appealing, but
Speaker 1: the chances of him serving a prison sentence are slim.
Speaker 1: The Guineaan state has since settled its claims against his company.
Speaker 1: Steinmetz told me he was unfazed by the fact that
Speaker 1: Romania's European arrest warrant for him is still outstanding. What
Speaker 1: do I need to worry about to worry about something
Speaker 1: I haven't done? Because I can't fly to Europe, I
Speaker 1: can fly to the rest of the world. I can
Speaker 1: do whatever I want. As I left, I was alarmed
Speaker 1: by the thought that perhaps he was right. Judges across
Speaker 1: Europe have independently cast serious doubts about Romania's case against
Speaker 1: the Project Prince Crew, with Greece, Cyprus, Malta and France
Speaker 1: all independently rejecting attempts by Romania to extradite Steinmetz and Paul.
Speaker 1: Interpol later ruled to delete the warrants against them, deciding,
Speaker 1: according to a ruling scene by the FT, that the
Speaker 1: use of secret service wiretapping was deemed contrary to fair
Speaker 1: trial standards. The ruling also said there were serious concerns
Speaker 1: regarding the existence of political elements in the Romanian criminal
Speaker 1: case against them. Late last summer, paulsted in a Martese
Speaker 1: court for the last time, as it was announced that
Speaker 1: Romania's attempts to extradite him had been rejected. He was
Speaker 1: free to return to France, and Lea was joyed to
Speaker 1: be going back to Paris. What was that film? If
Speaker 1: it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium. Tomorrow we'll stay with
Speaker 1: my husband's dear friend who has a castle in France.
Speaker 1: From a dungeon to a castle and one day, how
Speaker 1: many people from the Midwest can say that? Weeks later
Speaker 1: I learned that Paul had managed to track down several
Speaker 1: of the missing paintings spirited out of Romania in the
Speaker 1: nineteen forties. Based on Paul's legal claims, a French judge
Speaker 1: has frozen the transfer of two El Greco's, opening up
Speaker 1: the possibility that, after three decades, he might finally receive
Speaker 1: some small piece of his inheritance. During one of our
Speaker 1: last conversations, I asked him whether, after all the setbacks,
Speaker 1: the arrest, warrants, the fleeing and jail, he ever regretted
Speaker 1: having returned to Romania. I'm from birth from conception, the
Speaker 1: grandson of King Carol. He said, I respect Romania's republic,
Speaker 1: but I am really the rightful Crown Prince. The Fugitive
Speaker 1: Prince was written by me Myles Johnson and edited by
Speaker 1: Matt Veller. It was produced by Misha Frankel Duval and
Speaker 1: Laura Clarke. Mix and sound design were by Breen Turner.
Speaker 2: RYL. Brumley is the FT's global head of Audio.