Inside Monaco Princess Charlene’s ‘dangerous’ spending - reached almost $2m a year

Princess Charlene of Monaco's spending allowance reached nearly $2 million a year. Photo / Getty Images

Princess Charlene of Monaco reportedly employed illegal immigrants and paid them 100 euros a day (NZ$178) while her personal spending allowance rapidly soared to more than one million euros ($1.78m) a year, according to Prince Albert’s former accountant.

Claude Palmero, 67, managed the palace finances for more than 20 years before he resigned in July last year after he was targeted by an anti-corruption website.

The accountant’s “secret notebooks” were shared with French newspaper Le Monde and shed light on the spending habits of the Monaco royals. What’s more, it was revealed that “illegal immigrants” made up the majority of Charlene’s eight full-time employees, which was a major concern for Palmero, reports The Daily Mail.

“Her Serene Highness the Princess makes people work for her who are not compliant,” Palmero warned Prince Albert, also mentioning “a moonlighting Filipino woman who ties up dogs in the shower”.

The accountant further revealed in a letter written back in January 2017 that another member of staff from the Philippines had been “illegal for five years”, despite entering the country on a one-month tourist visa.

“He gets paid 100 euros a day, which is off the scale,” Palmero wrote.

Princess Charlene of Monaco, Prince Albert II of Monaco, Prince Jacques of Monaco and Princess Gabriella of Monaco. Photo / Getty Images

When the Zimbabwe-born royal gave birth to twins, Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella, in December 2014, she immediately hired illegal immigrant nannies to care for them.

“Update on the hiring of nannies … We are completely illegal (even their tourist visa expired on January 7),” Palmero wrote on January 15, 2015. “They are not only in an illegal situation, but one entered with a false passport”, Palmero further revealed.

Despite this, Palmero allowed for almost 600,000 euros ($1m) to be spent on the celebration of the twins’ birth and baptism.

In April 2016, the princess requested 66,000 euros ($117,000) in one day. The staggering amount was “definitely too much”, according to Palmero, especially as she had also decided to rent a second place to stay on Corsica.

“Isn’t that a lot?” questioned the accountant, who was worried that Charlene was taking money from funds that were “undeclared” when it came to tax.

“These practices are dangerous,” Palmero warned.

Princess Charlene of Monaco and Prince Albert II of Monaco on their wedding day. Photo / Getty Images

The former chief royal wealth manager in the Mediterranean tax haven alleges he desperately attempted to amend the Princess’s “dangerous” money use, and at one point blocked the 45-year-old from hiring new staff.

The books also claim that Charlene’s husband Albert spends millions every year using a secret French bank account to send money to his former mistresses and love children - with Jazmin Grimaldi, 31, and Alexandre Coste-Grimaldi, 20, being paid 344,000 euros ($612,000) annually each.

These large sums of money were being spent at the same time Charlene was spending 826,000 euros ($1.5m) on redecorating her holiday home in Calvi on Corsica, as well as when she was pouring 860,000 euros ($1.53m) into decorating her office in Monte Carlo.

The princess was paying her personal chef around 250 euros a day ($445) from petty cash, Palmero claims, while her South African family were also receiving an allowance of hundreds of thousands of euros.

In February 2017, the accountant also released the equivalent of more than half a million euros to pay off the princess’s overdraft.

A concerned Palmero revealed in December 2019 that Princess Charlene had forked out “around 15 million euros ($27m)”, over eight years as a royal, even though her allowance was limited to “7.5 million euros” ($13m).

“It’s crazy!” Palmero wrote at the time. “I have no control over the princess’s spending”.