how two men who were targeting the prince caused panic on the Rock
This is a first legal step in an ultra-sensitive case where computer hacking, alleged lies and alleged collusion have been revealed. Last Thursday, a Parisian investigating judge indicted two men for “Concealment of breaches of an automated data processing system”. Frédéric C. and Didier G. are suspected of having taken part in a destabilization operation targeting relatives of Prince Albert II of Monaco.
This affair, known as the “Dossiers du Rocher”, after the title of the anonymous website disseminating confidential documents, has poisoned the lives of four figures in the sovereign’s first circle since September 2021. And arouses the upheaval in the Principality by casting a harsh light on the financial stakes linked to the exploitation of real estate in the micro-State where the square meter can sometimes afford up to 100,000 euros.
A preliminary investigation
Arrested on Tuesday, the two suspects were taken into police custody and interviewed by investigators from the cybercrime brigade (BL2C) of the Paris judicial police, as part of a preliminary investigation opened by the Paris prosecutor’s office. A procedure created after the complaint filed, in November 2021, by the four personalities cited in the Dossiers du Rocher.
Referred to as the “Club des 4” or “G4”, Laurent Anselmi, chief of staff to Albert II, Thierry Lacoste, lawyer and childhood friend of the prince, Didier Linotte, president of the Supreme Court of Monaco, the court local constitutional court, and Claude Palmero, chartered accountant and administrator of the sovereign’s property, are the target of incriminating videos and articles, broadcast on YouTube and on social networks. A close guard which would have organized itself, according to the mysterious crow, to take advantage of the real estate projects in progress or to come on the 2 square kilometers of the Rock.
Placed under judicial supervision, Frédéric C., a 59-year-old Belgian business manager living in the Gard, and Didier G., Monegasque, son of a former AS Monaco player, who presents himself as a “professional lawyer, specialist in human rights but also in the protection of animals”, are now prohibited from contacting each other.
Judicial information also relates to acts of“access and maintenance in such a system”D’“fraudulent extraction of data from such a system” and D’“Interception of electronic correspondence”, indicated the Paris prosecutor’s office to the JDD.
Confidential email exchanges revealed
In this complex case, the four suspects saw part of their confidential email exchanges, dating back several years, revealed on the digital media created by the authors of this anonymous campaign.
The BL2C investigators tracked down the suspects by analyzing the videos posted online and the websites created to question the probity and loyalty of these four followers of Albert II. “The technical exploitation of certain data enabled us to ascertain that one of the suspects was the holder of an IP address which had been used to publish private correspondence, fraudulently recorded, of one of the suspects”, says a source familiar with the matter. The second respondent is also suspected of having put professional documents online, from the correspondence of Thierry Lacoste, the prince’s lawyer.
In one of his recordings, he is said to have “set up the Rock Files” with the complicity of his co-indicted. Asked, their lawyers did not “didn’t want to speak”.
several million euros
“These first two suspects are probably only second knives in this well-orchestrated operation,” says the same source. The mailboxes of several suspects were hacked and thousands of emails diverted; the websites used for this smear campaign link to the United States, Iceland and Cyprus; the organizers of this operation have inflated the audience of their sites by resorting to small hands in India. All of this requires significant financial resources. »
The cost of such an undertaking would amount to several million euros. The police are continuing their investigations to determine the motive and the identity of the sponsors. A name already mentioned in the media comes back to their ears: Patrice Pastor, multi-billionaire and stone magnate on the Rock. Questioned by Le Monde in March, he rejected these accusations by declaring: “The substance of the subject, everyone knows it: the methods of a small group who set up business by taking advantage of the prince. And me, I’m in the way, because I’m the best in Monaco. But it doesn’t make sense that I’m behind Les Dossiers du Rocher, I don’t care about these people! “You are telling me these developments which will reassure the suspects, reacted Marie-Alix Canu-Bernard, their lawyer. On the merits, I have no comments, but the very effective intervention of the investigators and the Paris prosecutor’s office will perhaps put an end to the actions they are subjected to. »