In Monaco, stories of big money and a palace revolution
Investigation“Hands down on the Rock” (2/2). Behind the scenes in the Principality, a violent conflict has been going on for years between the extremely wealthy real estate entrepreneur Patrice Pastor and certain very influential members of Prince Albert’s entourage.
This November 30, 2020, Nicolas Saussier is very angry. Adviser for the press to Albert II, he wrote to M.and Thierry Lacoste, lawyer and friend of the prince: “Pastorian octopus is everywhere! She put the grappling hook on Monaco. “PP” has gone crazy, he has no limits…” This e-mail appears on Les Dossiers du Rocher, the website where are distributed, by an anonymous source, numerous documents – for the most part authenticated – filed in question with the entourage of the Monegasque sovereign. A case that has been ravaging the Principality since the fall of 2021.
This “PP”, also known as “P2”, this supposed “octopus”, would be the multi-billionaire Patrice Pastor, a 49-year-old man, builder, for decades, of buildings and apartments then rented at exorbitant prices. An essential character in Monaco, proud and unadorned. “I’m not a nice guy, he warns. I’m free, independent and I have money, so… Everything is true in Les Dossiers du Rocher, and everyone knows it! The truth is, I piss them off. » Patrice Pastor is right: he is in the crosshairs. In the Principality, there are now those who would be, according to the expression of his enemies, “pastorized”, that is to say sold to his clan, and the others, entrenched in the Palace, ready to endure a siege, to the shelter of the cannons and their balls, emblems of the fortress since the XVIIand century.
Here, then, is the microstate, the scene of a kind of trench warfare, with the prince in the middle, a white flag in one hand, a saber in the other. Because everyone around him, up to Albert II himself, is convinced that this campaign of digital destabilization, the cost of which is revealed by specialists at several million euros, was set up by Patrice Pastor in person, with the occasional complicity help. The explanation? “PP”, according to its adversaries, would have been furious to see many real estate projects pass under its nose in favor of its two rivals, the enterprising – but more modest – Caroli and Marzocco groups.
What is the main target of Les Dossiers du Rocher? A squad of powerful men, united against the Pastors. All are close to Albert II, sometimes known financially through certain real estate files, as underlined by the emails and other documents hacked on behalf of the Files du Rocher by an obviously well-equipped “raven”.
Joust of billionaires
In the forefront of the characters targeted, the lawyer Thierry Lacoste, but also Claude Palmero, administrator of the property and right arm of Albert of Monaco, or even Didier Linotte, the president of the Supreme Court, the local constitutional court. “Pastor wants to have real power with the government at his heels and the administration he controls, and leave the inauguration of the chrysanthemums to the prince, analyzes Mr. Palmero. His heritage varies, according to estimates, between 12 and 20 billion euros, he weighs more than the prince! But he is wrong: our goal is not to destroy it, but to end the monopoly. » It’s a contest between billionaires, even if the heritage of Prince Albert II turns out to be “only” 1 billion euros…
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