Monaco's prince wants back-pay lawsuit dismissed

By ELAINE GANLEY

PARIS

An American lawyer for Monaco's Prince Albert II has filed a motion to dismiss what he says is a "meritless" lawsuit by a Californian who claims he served as the prince's personal spymaster and is owed back pay.

The "modest breach-of-contract claim" filed by Robert Eringer is "redolent of a crude 'shake-down' or blatant extorsion," Stanley S. Arkin contended in a statement Tuesday.

The motion was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. A statement from Arkin's New York-based offices said the prince is entitled to immunity as head of state of the tiny Riviera principality, located next to Nice, France. It contends that the alleged contract in question "relates to matters that are in no way associated with California ... or the United States."

Eringer, of Santa Barbara, claimed in a recent interview in Paris Match magazine that he worked for Albert from June 2002 until March 2007, with no formal termination. He claims he was tasked with keeping abreast of shady figures as part of an effort to rout out corruption in Monaco. The work would have started while Albert was crown prince. He took the throne upon the death of his father, Prince Rainier, in April 2005.

Eringer is seeking euro40,000 ($59,600) in back pay in a suit filed in California, according to a copy of the complaint filed by Arkin.

Eringer initially sought some euro400,000 from Prince Albert in a letter dated Sept. 23 in exchange for keeping his complaint private, the complaint states. With no payment forthcoming, Eringer filed suit Oct. 5.

The Californian's suit is filled with "grandiose, scurrilous and largely irrelevant allegations," Arkin's filing before the court states.

The picture painted by Eringer of his work in the Paris Match interview published Nov. 5 suggests cloak and dagger operations in the sunny principality, which has long attracted the rich and famous as a paradise for gamblers and those seeking a tax haven -- a status that changed with its removal last spring from an OECD list of uncooperative tax havens.

Eringer claimed an entity dubbed the "Monaco Intelligence Service," or MIS, was set up for his operations. Paris Match showed a photo of an ID card for the Monaco Intelligence Service carrying Eringer's picture and number -- 001. Its authenticity could not be established.

However, the palace said last week that MIS has no "legal existence" and that "no structure bearing the name M.I.S. (Monaco Intelligence Service) has ever existed."

Prince Albert, 51, has faced other difficult moments since taking the throne, including public admissions of fathering a son and a daughter out of wedlock with two different women.