October 12, 2023 • 29 mins
Located on the northern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, Monaco is tiny, rich and virtually crime-free—until the Pink Panthers show up. After they penetrate the peaceful haven for the ultra-wealthy, Monaco’s Prince Albert II appoints dashing French police inspector Andre Mulhberger to restore his subjects’ peace of mind. But temptations lurk everywhere in this “sunny place for shady people,” and even an incorruptible cop can find himself swimming in dangerous waters.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
It's a fascinating place Monaco. Indeed, it's a strange place
and it has I think higher ratio of police to
residence than any other country.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
In the world.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Michael Waldman is a British filmmaker who made a documentary
series about Monaco for the BBC.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
What they did was a film in the prison the governor.
When I asked him about who tended to be the
prisoners from where they came, he said quite a lot
were from Eastern Europe. He mentioned Hungarians, Serbians, Bulgarians. And
when I said, well, why, given the level of policing
and the extent of the surveillance, would any criminal come
(00:44):
to Monaco to steal? He said, very simple and direct answer,
he said, because there's a lot of money here.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
I'm Natalia Antalava.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
I'm a journalist based in Eastern Europe, and I'm going
to take you into the world of Serbia's most brazen
jewel thieves.
Speaker 5 (01:12):
The most daring and successful diamond thieves in the world.
Speaker 6 (01:15):
Thirty to forty seconds in.
Speaker 5 (01:19):
How they've stolen half a billion dollars worth of valuables.
Speaker 6 (01:22):
Two well dressed men strolled into an exclusive jewelry store
in London, and walked out with sixty six million dollars
in jewels.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
They called the Pink Panthers.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
They're a loosely connected group of over educated, underemployed, ambitious
young people who rose from the ashes of the Yugoslav
Wars of the nineteen nineties to commit elaborate smash and
grab heists all across the globe, often in broad daylight.
This is infamous international The Pink Panther.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Story, episode seven, The Curious Case of Inspector Mahmerge.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
If ever there was a place designed to appeal to
a pink panther, it's Monaco.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Monaco is a tiny.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Protectorate of France, less than one square mile of Mediterranean paradise.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
It's known for its casinos.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Its royalty, its movie stars, the Grand Prix, racing beaches,
and extremely accommodating tax laws. Grace Kelly made the place
famous in the movie to Catch a Thief then marry
the real life Prince. The rich flog there, attracted by
its reputation as a safe haven for their money, As
(02:45):
the writer W. Somerset mom famously said, it's a sunny
place for shady people.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
A whole lot of things in Monaco are illegal, which
in other places nobody would notice. There's rules about what
you could. You know, you can't walk around topless. I'm
talking about men. There is all sorts of strange rules
that try to make the place of clean and decent
in their view, and of course crime free. It is
a strange place, and if you go there and look around,
(03:14):
you cannot be on any street corner and not see
that there is a discrete camera or sometimes indiscrete camera
or cameras observing your every move. Depends on your position
as to what you think about a place where you
can't move without the eyes and the cameras of the
state looking at you. If you're a very strong civil libertarian,
you might think this is sort of not desirable. If
(03:34):
you're a very rich person wanting to flaunt your diamonds
as you walked from restaurant to apartment, it's rather comforting.
The economy is based on people coming and spending money.
So what they do is attract not only residents who come,
and they come in many cases because they don't have
to pay tax in Monaco, but they also then spend money,
as do visitors, whether it be in the casino or
shops or posh hotels or restaurants or whatever. So what
(03:57):
they want is people with money to come and spend it.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
All that money, all that flauntic Monaco has an obvious
appeal for the Pink Panthers.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Dana Kennedy is a national.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Reporter with the New York Post who spent fifteen years
based in Europe. She lived in Nice, just thirteen miles
from the Monaco border, and she got to know the
place pretty well.
Speaker 7 (04:23):
I was based in the South of France, and one
reason why I know a bit about jewelry heis and
why the Pink Panthers are on my radar, is because
the South of France is really one of the main
places where the Pink Panthers go to pull off their
incredible heist. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was filmed in the.
Speaker 6 (04:39):
South of France.
Speaker 7 (04:40):
It took place there and is all about con artists
and shysters and pulling off a fast one.
Speaker 6 (04:46):
It's sort of an.
Speaker 7 (04:46):
Epicenter for too much money, too many con men, too
many police looking the other way.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
For Dana Kennedy, Monaco is a strange mix of cultures.
Speaker 7 (04:57):
I'll never forget someone who said that Monaco is like
France if it were run by Americans. And what I
mean by that is when you go over there, you
don't see a lot of this sort of fussy French
cultural stuff that you might see in France. People still
speak French, of course, and it's beautiful and there's beautiful
food and beautiful architecture, but it's something a little bit different.
(05:19):
It's also one of the world's biggest police states.
Speaker 6 (05:23):
Before the rest of the world.
Speaker 7 (05:24):
Had CCTV cameras, Monaco had like about one hundred cameras
per capita. There are cameras at every possible inch of Monico.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Monaco even has its own famous curse.
Speaker 6 (05:42):
The Principality of Monaco is thought.
Speaker 7 (05:44):
To have had a curse on it for eight hundred
years since the House of Grimaldi came into being basically
around the year eight hundred and that's when pirates from Genoa,
Italy snuck into Monaco disguised as Franciscan monks and took
over the principality. And over the years many tragic things
have happened, especially in modern times.
Speaker 6 (06:06):
The death of Princess Grace.
Speaker 7 (06:08):
She drove off a cliff above Monaco in nineteen eighty
two and She's only fifty two years old. Her daughter,
Princess Caroline's husband, Stefano Kosaragi. He was killed in a
boating accident off Monaco, which many people.
Speaker 6 (06:21):
Thought was very suspicious.
Speaker 7 (06:23):
There had been a lot of larger than life tragedies
coming out of Monaco for decades.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
But despite its beautiful Mediterranean setting, most residents choose to
live in Monaco for more practical reasons.
Speaker 7 (06:36):
A lot of the people live there not because they
really love it. They live there because their husbands worked
for gas prom in Moscow, or you know, one of
the biggest banks in England and they are there to
save money on taxes. But it's a crazy, wild, interesting place,
and I grew to love it.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
A crazy wild place, one that presents a tempting target
for the being anthers, and one where they struck more
than once with their hallmark speed at precision.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
They hit a.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Jewelry shop, smashing the windows with hammers and making off
with thirty two watchers worth half a million dollars. They
even took the luxury watch of the wrist of a
footballer who happened to be in the shop at the time.
Speaker 7 (07:23):
In Monaco, the amount that they're pulling in these like
two minute heis is so astonishing.
Speaker 6 (07:30):
I think people can't really grasp it.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
It's like magic, which brings us to Inspector Marlberge Andrew
Malberge was a young detective who had a fast ride
in the French police. He had recently captured a ring
of major drug dealers in Marseille. This high profile success
is what got him hired to head a Monaco's police department.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
Marlberge was handsome and he was confident.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
New Yorker writer David Samuels described him as quote a
cross between a Hollywood movie star and a car with
a deep tand strong shoulders.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
And bad teeth.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
The pink panthers had been making moves in the south
of France, and it was Marlbersh's idea to call an
Interpol for help. In an interview on Dateline NBC, he
talks about the wisdom of his decision, especially for a
place like Monaco.
Speaker 8 (08:29):
It's a small territory, we have a lot of police,
we have CCTV all around, and the population has no
fear to call the police. And said, I saw something
that it's not normal.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Why did you think that, Peter Pol is the right way.
Speaker 8 (08:42):
To go because it's the only organization where we can
share all the information about this. By asked him to
fall to organize a meeting between all the countries who
had to know robberies made by the pink Panthers.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Captain erve Connon of the Paris Police collaborated with Marlberghe
and thought quite highly of them.
Speaker 9 (09:02):
He was the very small guys because before the robbery
in Monaco, in fact, there were no international channel about
the ping panthers. And he has created this meeting that
happens every years with all the law enforcement involved.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
In this topic.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Ome.
Speaker 9 (09:17):
It was very clever because the other thing it is
from Monaco, Abingerberry is impossible. It is a city where
people are coming because they have a lot of money
and they own safety. If you've got a robberies in Monaco,
it is a danger for the city.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
In fact, for the.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Prestige manager was well aware, as he explained in the
New Yorker profile and the being panthers in Monoco, we
cannot let anything happen. And so when Monaco's Prince Albert
recruits Andrew Marlberge in two thousand and six as his
(09:53):
director of Public security. He is looking for someone who
will be able to handle this uniquely damaging proper them
and Mobaschet fits the profile to perfection.
Speaker 7 (10:07):
No American police chief looks anything like.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
This guy, Dana Kennedy, He himself is.
Speaker 6 (10:13):
Something out of Central Casting.
Speaker 7 (10:14):
If you think of any French gendarmes you might have
seen in the movies, they have a certain style, and
a certain dignity, and a certain a line and a
certain dashing nature to them. He's very French in that
he takes himself extremely seriously, no joking around. He had a.
Speaker 6 (10:33):
Mission to accomplish. He accomplished it in Marseille with.
Speaker 7 (10:36):
Drug connection traffickers, and then when Prince Albert called him
in to basically become the Pink Panther connection guy in Monaco.
Speaker 6 (10:44):
I mean he rose to the occasion.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
And Malberge's brainchild.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
This Pink Panther task force is a serious response to
what he knows is a serious issue. Less than a
year into his appointment, the Pink Panthers struck the Cerebelli
Jewelry store in Monte Carlos Casino Square, despite the presence
of some four hundred close circuit cameras.
Speaker 6 (11:06):
It's a huge embarrassment to Monaco.
Speaker 7 (11:08):
I just finished discussing how much of really a police
security state Monico is, how the surveillance is unbelievable there,
so the fact that the Pink Panthers could pull off
a heist there under the nose of Prince Albert and
people who paid millions to live in a place they
think is secure.
Speaker 6 (11:27):
They had to have this task force.
Speaker 7 (11:29):
So the citizenry wouldn't, you know, basically rise up in arms.
I mean, you pay a premium to live in Monaco
for number one, so you don't have to pay taxes,
and number two so you can feel safe. So it's
highly embarrassing to have these Eastern European thieves just walk.
Speaker 6 (11:46):
In and steal jewels.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
So they had.
Speaker 7 (11:49):
To do something to make people think that they're really
doing something, and I think he obviously was.
Speaker 6 (11:54):
He was a top level guy.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
And for a while. Andrew Marlberge is a smashing success.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
In two thousand and eight, he manages to arrest Pink
Panther Dousko Poznan. A car happens to run over Dushko's
foot while he's standing on a Monaco street corner. He
is taken to the hospital recognized from an interpal red
notice photo and summarily arrested.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
The arrest sparks speculation that Malberge.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Had staged the accident to sweep the panther off the
streets and into custody. Malberge himself denied it, but it
was suspiciously bad luck for duschcom. In two thousand and nine,
Marlberge helps track down another pink Panther who had dropped
that luxury watch store in Monaco two years earlier. They
(12:46):
trace him to the Sketchy Hotel in Paris, where Detective
erve Konon makes the arrest. That same year, Marlberge's team
catches three other pink Panthers in the parking lot of
a Monaco casino the night before their plan jewelheist. This
is all welcome news for the people of Monaco. Not
to mention Marlberge's boss, the Prince, but chief Inspector. Under
(13:09):
Malbersjet would end up making some dangerous enemies and some
dangerous friends.
Speaker 7 (13:27):
What happened to Andre Milberger is a sort of quintessential
Monico's story.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Incidentally, Dana Kennedy pronounces his name Mulberger. Others he's the
French Malberjet.
Speaker 7 (13:38):
On one hand, Mulberger was a good guy and that
he got down on the Pink Panthers and was well
known for making arrest there.
Speaker 6 (13:48):
But the fact that.
Speaker 7 (13:49):
He had Russian ties is absolutely unfortunately or fortunately completely
business as usual in Monaco Russians.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
The plot thickens.
Speaker 6 (14:00):
There are a ton of Russians in Monaco.
Speaker 7 (14:03):
They have enormous influence.
Speaker 6 (14:05):
There are billionaires.
Speaker 7 (14:07):
From Russia who have Monaco residency because obviously they don't
pay income taxes.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Marlbersham defended his socializing with the wealthy Russians of monacom
in an interview with French Vanity Fair, saying, I quote, yes,
I hang out with Russians, So is it forbidden they're rich?
Does that necessarily make the mafia? They're men of my generation.
They have studied in the United States, in London or Switzerland.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
Why should we stop talking to them? End of quote.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
But Marlberge's defensive stance tells us that he saw how
these friendships might have an effect on his carefully honed
sterling reputation as an incorruptible cop.
Speaker 7 (14:50):
The problem is the fact that he had.
Speaker 6 (14:53):
A lot of suspect.
Speaker 7 (14:54):
Russian and Eastern European friends himself, means that we don't
know if he was in Raley guy or what I mean.
Everything is very murky in Monaco for a reason. There's
way too much money and way too many people who
got their money in mysterious ways for anybody to ever
totally see what's going on, and the amount of skullduggery
(15:16):
and corruption is kind of off the charts there. Prince Albert,
since the death of his father in two thousand and five,
has really tried to clean up Monico's image, and he
succeeded in many ways.
Speaker 6 (15:28):
But it's still true.
Speaker 7 (15:29):
It's still a funny place for shady people, and Neilburger
is right up there with.
Speaker 6 (15:34):
The shady people.
Speaker 7 (15:34):
And the fact that he had Russian friends and he
had a Russian girlfriend is kind of part for the course.
Speaker 6 (15:40):
It's not unusual.
Speaker 7 (15:41):
What would be unusual if you had a Monaco cop
with no ties.
Speaker 6 (15:45):
However, to that world.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Okay, so Mobajet made friends with some Russians, but he
also made one series enemy.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
My name is Robert Earinger, and I have a forty
five year background in what I call the information business,
and that encompasses journalism as well as intelligence.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
The recording you'll hear of our interview with Robert Erainger
is not of the highest quality. He insisted on being
recorded only over the phone.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
I was an investigative reporter for a British newspapers through
the nineteen eighties. In the nineteen nineties I did private
sector intelligence, and in two thousand and two I was
retained by Prince Albert Monaco to be his intelligence advisor.
At that time, the Prince was the hereditary Prince, meaning
he wasn't the ruling Prince yet. In two thousand and
(16:39):
five he became the ruling Prince when his father, Prince Rani,
had passed, and at that time I created for Albert
the unofficial Monaco Intelligence Service.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
We should say from the outset that Erringer, who once
had a close connection to Prince Albert, has been on
the outs with him ever since he left Monaco.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
In two thousand and seven.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
That he sued the Prince for breach of contract, claiming
that he was not paid for his final invoice, and
Prince Albert filed a number of lawsuits against Erringer for
defamation in his gossipy blog posts. The subject of one
of those lawsuits was actually Andra Marlbershe. But let's go
back to a happier time in the relationship between Robert
(17:23):
Erainger and Prince Albert of Monaco.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
We got to know each other in the late nineteen
eighties when I lived in Monaco for a couple of years.
Thereafter I moved to Washington and he got involved in
intelligence work.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
I let him know what I was doing.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
He was rather intrigued, and when he had a question
one day about a particular Russian who wanted to invest
in Monico's football team, he asked me to investigate the
background of that individual. I did discover that he was dirty.
I then pointed out to Albert that the Russian influence
in the south of France was deafening, and that it
(17:59):
was expected the Russian influence would expand and try to
move into Monaco.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Its two president inclusion, had indeed.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
Fixated on Monaco as a fabulous place from which to
lauder money and conduct intelligence operations.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Russian oligarchs were looking for new places to park their money,
and Monaco, with its friendly tax laws, seemed perfect. Erringer
claims he predicted that this influx of Russian money would
bring more crime and corruption to Monoco, and off the
back of that, he says, he sold his services to
(18:34):
Prince Albert.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
In June two thousand and two. He retained meaning to
be his intelligence advisor and keep an eye on the
Russians who were trying to muscle their way into Monaco,
along with other seating characters who were attempting to penetrate.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
The royal court. That is, Albert forman.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Erranger was in the position to run his own show
until Andrew Marlberger arrived.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
Andre Muhlberget arrived from France at a very opportune moment.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
If I met him soon after.
Speaker 5 (19:06):
He became police chief, it should have been a time
when he could have done very very well there, because
by that time, my service to Albert and the unofficial
intelligence service we created had put together a blueprint of
everything that was going wrong in Monaco with regard to
money laundering and corruption and Russian influence. I think it
bothered Malberge quite a bit of an American was running
(19:30):
Albert's intelligence when he felt that it should be his role,
and he was jealous of the relationship I had with
Albert and wanted that for himself.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
So although he pretended to.
Speaker 5 (19:40):
Be a friend and supporter of.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
What we were doing.
Speaker 5 (19:44):
It later appeared to me that he was working behind
the scenes against us.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Robert Eranger thought he was suddenly in a power struggle.
Speaker 5 (19:53):
Mouhlberge tried to make that look like I was stepping
on the toes of his police department and feeling there information,
so he would do things. I'd go to Albert and
complain that I was taking information out of their files
and calling it our own, which was actually quite incorrect.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
But Erringer doesn't think Marlbajet started out corrupt, if in
fact he was ever corrupted.
Speaker 5 (20:14):
In my opinion, he came to Monaco with good intentions,
at least that's the feeling I had when I first
met him, and I think he actually wanted to act
on some of the information. But I believe he got
neutered by the powers that be in Monaco, the ministers,
especially the chief judicial officer, who was terribly corrupt himself.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Rangers says these Monaco officials warned Marlbergjet to back off,
to stop his investigations.
Speaker 5 (20:42):
In our last meeting, he seemed rather upset me. He said,
they want me only to direct traffic.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
And so I think at some.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
Stage, he thought, well, obviously I can't investigate crime and
they don't want me to, so I might as well
just become part of it.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
And I believe that that's exactly what happened.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
Eventually.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
Chief Inspector Marlberje did make friends with some Russians, but
it was his relationship with a former beauty queen from
Belarus that would be his downfall.
Speaker 5 (21:12):
I mean, you have to talk about the circumstances under
which he had to leave his job as police chief.
He did not resign. He was fired after it was
exposed that he had a relationship with a beauty queen
from Belarus and had been discovered to have been coboarding
with her on a boat, and those photographs came out.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
He was married.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
He was disgraced when Ranger says it was exposed regarding
Marlbach's affair with the beauty queen and that the quote
photos came out, What he means is that he Ranger
posted the photos of Marlberje on vacation with a woman
on his blog and created a scandal that consumed Monaco
(21:54):
and much of Europe. The photos, he says, were sent
to him by some unnamed source.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
He tried to save his job. He went to see
Prince Albert and couldn't do it.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
Prince Albert did not take the scandal well.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Malbergem was informed that he had to find an elegant
way to resign. An official press release announced his departure,
saying he was starting a new career in.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
The private sector.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
In late June twenty thirteen, Malbergem meets some friends at
Camp Dye, a popular beach just west of Monaco.
Speaker 7 (22:41):
I know where he was because I've been there myself.
It's the one town over for Monica, one of the
most gorgeous beaches in that area of the French and
Monica Riviera. It's kind of a little hidden gem. The
locals know it, tourists don't know it, which makes it
all bit better. And he was there for lunch, and
he was very tight with certain Russians. He had Russian friends,
(23:03):
he had a Russian girlfriend, and there was a yacht
that some of his Russian friends were on.
Speaker 6 (23:09):
And I don't know if he was dared to go
out swim to the yacht or not, because people do
that a lot.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
He's with this group of Russians. They go to a
lunch spot and cap Die. I've been there. I know
how it works. You park your boat out in the
water and then you shuttle in.
Speaker 5 (23:24):
He has a long three hour lunch in which he's
applied with booze.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
They know what a mancho guy he is.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
Aaron Aja shim you can't swim out to that boat,
and moul Briget, being an arrogant prick full of bravado,
does sho.
Speaker 7 (23:41):
I mean, everybody travels by yacht in this area, and
it's really typical to be on a yacht and pull
up a certain place for lunch.
Speaker 6 (23:50):
I don't know how.
Speaker 7 (23:50):
Far the boat was, but it's not unusual to go
swim out to a boat.
Speaker 6 (23:55):
It happens all the time. But this time when he
was swimming out to the boat.
Speaker 7 (24:00):
This high level, prestigious, just retired police investigator was swimming
out to me his friends on the yacht, and somehow
another boat came by cut him off and he was
cut by the propeller and killed.
Speaker 6 (24:20):
I can't imagine.
Speaker 7 (24:22):
A more hideous but yet in some ways fitting death
for someone who was as powerful as this guy really
was in Monaco. I mean, he had this incredible career,
first in Marseille, French connection drug trafficking copp in Marseille.
Then he's brought to Monaco to run the Pink Panther
(24:42):
task Force. It's Prince Albert himself who appoints him, and
he does a bang up job. And just after he
retired from this incredible career, he met with a horrible
and grisly death.
Speaker 5 (24:56):
I think he may have promised things to certain Russians
that he could no longer deliver. In my opinion, he
was murdered by Russians. I don't know which Russians, so
I believe the whole thing was set up and that
when he swam out to the boat, they purposely backed
into him and he was murdered. Is it because he
was blackmailing certain Russians with information that he had possession
(25:18):
of from his job as police chief.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
I think that's one possibility.
Speaker 5 (25:23):
Another is that he had made deals with Russians that
he could no longer deliver on it because he was
no longer police chief and they wanted payback.
Speaker 7 (25:31):
So as you could just picture this, this big, strong
French police investigator swimming through the waves to meet this yacht,
to meet his friends, maybe have a drink with.
Speaker 6 (25:42):
Them on their yacht.
Speaker 7 (25:43):
He's cut down by a boat and the propeller is
thought to have slice the back of his head and
almost severed.
Speaker 6 (25:53):
One of his legs.
Speaker 7 (25:54):
I mean, you can't even a matt You couldn't write
the script for the death of the man who took
on the pink Panthers in the South of France.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Investigators could never confirm whether another boat struck Malberge or
of the yacht he was swimming to somehow backed into him.
Whatever the truth behind event, it was a shocking end
to Inspector Malberge.
Speaker 7 (26:22):
There are a lot of incredibly crazy stories that happen
in Monaco. Monaco and the South of France are run
on myth, They're run on fantasy.
Speaker 6 (26:33):
The local press.
Speaker 7 (26:34):
Is really controlled by the local powers, and they're not
going to spend too much time looking into any of this.
Speaker 6 (26:41):
They don't want people to get too deep into the
dark side.
Speaker 7 (26:46):
But the dark side of Monaco is always there, and
it has been there for centuries. So this poor police
chief's downfall in many ways, people see as just another
side of the dark side of Monaco.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Andra Malberje may have gotten on the wrong side of
the wrong people and pay the price, but his pursuit
of the Ping Panthers had proven highly effective. Dushko Poznan,
one of the members of the Dubai team, arrested, three
other Ping Panthers and an aborted highest of a Monaco
casino arrested, and Milan Lipuya arrested for the Liechtenstein job
(27:25):
and the highst at the Waffe Mall. Thanks to Marlberje's
efforts to involve inter Paul, Milan would face justice, even
if Malberje would face a grisly and on a beautiful
beach just.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
West of Monaco.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Coming up next on Infamous International, the Pink Panthers story.
Speaker 6 (27:48):
Yepuya trying to live a quiet life.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Let's say, after what happened in Dubai, he got married,
he got a dog, he got another dog for his
mom and sister, the.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
Return of the Pink Panther Milan le Poya.
Speaker 8 (28:02):
These guys were linked some other revenue, and they understood
now it's time to move to Cocainsmith.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
The criminal world of Niche is changing and things are
getting dangerous.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Organizing is very similar to organizing a murder as well.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
And the Pink Panthers discover how hard it is to
keep your hands clean in a dirty world of international crime.
Speaker 9 (28:26):
They got involved in this open ward that flipped the
whole Balkan underworld.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
That's next time on Infamous International. The Pink Panthers Story.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
Infamous International.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
The Pink Panthers Story was produced by Best Case Studios
in association with Kodas story hosted by me Natalia ant
Lava and written by Katrina wolf Adam Pinkis, Suzanne Myers,
and David Markowitz, with help from Brent Katz and Matt Levin.
For Best Case Studios Executive producer Adam Pinkis, Senior producer
(29:14):
David Markowitz, Producer Katrina Wolfe, Associate producer Hannah Libovitz, Lockhart,
and consulting producers Julie Goldstein and Louis Spiegeler. For Koda Story,
reporting by Lane Greenberg with associate producer Rebecca Robinson. Edited
and sound designed by Gaylan Mullins and Max Michael Miller.
(29:36):
Music by Dave Harrington. Archival producers Mark Degra.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
And Paul Dallas.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
This has been an Exactly Wright production. Executive producers Karen
Kilgareth Georgia hart Stark and Daniel Kramer, with consulting producer
Kyle Ryan,
It's a fascinating place Monaco. Indeed, it's a strange place
and it has I think higher ratio of police to
residence than any other country.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
In the world.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Michael Waldman is a British filmmaker who made a documentary
series about Monaco for the BBC.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
What they did was a film in the prison the governor.
When I asked him about who tended to be the
prisoners from where they came, he said quite a lot
were from Eastern Europe. He mentioned Hungarians, Serbians, Bulgarians. And
when I said, well, why, given the level of policing
and the extent of the surveillance, would any criminal come
(00:44):
to Monaco to steal? He said, very simple and direct answer,
he said, because there's a lot of money here.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
I'm Natalia Antalava.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
I'm a journalist based in Eastern Europe, and I'm going
to take you into the world of Serbia's most brazen
jewel thieves.
Speaker 5 (01:12):
The most daring and successful diamond thieves in the world.
Speaker 6 (01:15):
Thirty to forty seconds in.
Speaker 5 (01:19):
How they've stolen half a billion dollars worth of valuables.
Speaker 6 (01:22):
Two well dressed men strolled into an exclusive jewelry store
in London, and walked out with sixty six million dollars
in jewels.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
They called the Pink Panthers.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
They're a loosely connected group of over educated, underemployed, ambitious
young people who rose from the ashes of the Yugoslav
Wars of the nineteen nineties to commit elaborate smash and
grab heists all across the globe, often in broad daylight.
This is infamous international The Pink Panther.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Story, episode seven, The Curious Case of Inspector Mahmerge.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
If ever there was a place designed to appeal to
a pink panther, it's Monaco.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Monaco is a tiny.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Protectorate of France, less than one square mile of Mediterranean paradise.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
It's known for its casinos.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Its royalty, its movie stars, the Grand Prix, racing beaches,
and extremely accommodating tax laws. Grace Kelly made the place
famous in the movie to Catch a Thief then marry
the real life Prince. The rich flog there, attracted by
its reputation as a safe haven for their money, As
(02:45):
the writer W. Somerset mom famously said, it's a sunny
place for shady people.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
A whole lot of things in Monaco are illegal, which
in other places nobody would notice. There's rules about what
you could. You know, you can't walk around topless. I'm
talking about men. There is all sorts of strange rules
that try to make the place of clean and decent
in their view, and of course crime free. It is
a strange place, and if you go there and look around,
(03:14):
you cannot be on any street corner and not see
that there is a discrete camera or sometimes indiscrete camera
or cameras observing your every move. Depends on your position
as to what you think about a place where you
can't move without the eyes and the cameras of the
state looking at you. If you're a very strong civil libertarian,
you might think this is sort of not desirable. If
(03:34):
you're a very rich person wanting to flaunt your diamonds
as you walked from restaurant to apartment, it's rather comforting.
The economy is based on people coming and spending money.
So what they do is attract not only residents who come,
and they come in many cases because they don't have
to pay tax in Monaco, but they also then spend money,
as do visitors, whether it be in the casino or
shops or posh hotels or restaurants or whatever. So what
(03:57):
they want is people with money to come and spend it.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
All that money, all that flauntic Monaco has an obvious
appeal for the Pink Panthers.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Dana Kennedy is a national.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Reporter with the New York Post who spent fifteen years
based in Europe. She lived in Nice, just thirteen miles
from the Monaco border, and she got to know the
place pretty well.
Speaker 7 (04:23):
I was based in the South of France, and one
reason why I know a bit about jewelry heis and
why the Pink Panthers are on my radar, is because
the South of France is really one of the main
places where the Pink Panthers go to pull off their
incredible heist. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was filmed in the.
Speaker 6 (04:39):
South of France.
Speaker 7 (04:40):
It took place there and is all about con artists
and shysters and pulling off a fast one.
Speaker 6 (04:46):
It's sort of an.
Speaker 7 (04:46):
Epicenter for too much money, too many con men, too
many police looking the other way.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
For Dana Kennedy, Monaco is a strange mix of cultures.
Speaker 7 (04:57):
I'll never forget someone who said that Monaco is like
France if it were run by Americans. And what I
mean by that is when you go over there, you
don't see a lot of this sort of fussy French
cultural stuff that you might see in France. People still
speak French, of course, and it's beautiful and there's beautiful
food and beautiful architecture, but it's something a little bit different.
(05:19):
It's also one of the world's biggest police states.
Speaker 6 (05:23):
Before the rest of the world.
Speaker 7 (05:24):
Had CCTV cameras, Monaco had like about one hundred cameras
per capita. There are cameras at every possible inch of Monico.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Monaco even has its own famous curse.
Speaker 6 (05:42):
The Principality of Monaco is thought.
Speaker 7 (05:44):
To have had a curse on it for eight hundred
years since the House of Grimaldi came into being basically
around the year eight hundred and that's when pirates from Genoa,
Italy snuck into Monaco disguised as Franciscan monks and took
over the principality. And over the years many tragic things
have happened, especially in modern times.
Speaker 6 (06:06):
The death of Princess Grace.
Speaker 7 (06:08):
She drove off a cliff above Monaco in nineteen eighty
two and She's only fifty two years old. Her daughter,
Princess Caroline's husband, Stefano Kosaragi. He was killed in a
boating accident off Monaco, which many people.
Speaker 6 (06:21):
Thought was very suspicious.
Speaker 7 (06:23):
There had been a lot of larger than life tragedies
coming out of Monaco for decades.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
But despite its beautiful Mediterranean setting, most residents choose to
live in Monaco for more practical reasons.
Speaker 7 (06:36):
A lot of the people live there not because they
really love it. They live there because their husbands worked
for gas prom in Moscow, or you know, one of
the biggest banks in England and they are there to
save money on taxes. But it's a crazy, wild, interesting place,
and I grew to love it.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
A crazy wild place, one that presents a tempting target
for the being anthers, and one where they struck more
than once with their hallmark speed at precision.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
They hit a.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Jewelry shop, smashing the windows with hammers and making off
with thirty two watchers worth half a million dollars. They
even took the luxury watch of the wrist of a
footballer who happened to be in the shop at the time.
Speaker 7 (07:23):
In Monaco, the amount that they're pulling in these like
two minute heis is so astonishing.
Speaker 6 (07:30):
I think people can't really grasp it.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
It's like magic, which brings us to Inspector Marlberge Andrew
Malberge was a young detective who had a fast ride
in the French police. He had recently captured a ring
of major drug dealers in Marseille. This high profile success
is what got him hired to head a Monaco's police department.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
Marlberge was handsome and he was confident.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
New Yorker writer David Samuels described him as quote a
cross between a Hollywood movie star and a car with
a deep tand strong shoulders.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
And bad teeth.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
The pink panthers had been making moves in the south
of France, and it was Marlbersh's idea to call an
Interpol for help. In an interview on Dateline NBC, he
talks about the wisdom of his decision, especially for a
place like Monaco.
Speaker 8 (08:29):
It's a small territory, we have a lot of police,
we have CCTV all around, and the population has no
fear to call the police. And said, I saw something
that it's not normal.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Why did you think that, Peter Pol is the right way.
Speaker 8 (08:42):
To go because it's the only organization where we can
share all the information about this. By asked him to
fall to organize a meeting between all the countries who
had to know robberies made by the pink Panthers.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Captain erve Connon of the Paris Police collaborated with Marlberghe
and thought quite highly of them.
Speaker 9 (09:02):
He was the very small guys because before the robbery
in Monaco, in fact, there were no international channel about
the ping panthers. And he has created this meeting that
happens every years with all the law enforcement involved.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
In this topic.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Ome.
Speaker 9 (09:17):
It was very clever because the other thing it is
from Monaco, Abingerberry is impossible. It is a city where
people are coming because they have a lot of money
and they own safety. If you've got a robberies in Monaco,
it is a danger for the city.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
In fact, for the.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Prestige manager was well aware, as he explained in the
New Yorker profile and the being panthers in Monoco, we
cannot let anything happen. And so when Monaco's Prince Albert
recruits Andrew Marlberge in two thousand and six as his
(09:53):
director of Public security. He is looking for someone who
will be able to handle this uniquely damaging proper them
and Mobaschet fits the profile to perfection.
Speaker 7 (10:07):
No American police chief looks anything like.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
This guy, Dana Kennedy, He himself is.
Speaker 6 (10:13):
Something out of Central Casting.
Speaker 7 (10:14):
If you think of any French gendarmes you might have
seen in the movies, they have a certain style, and
a certain dignity, and a certain a line and a
certain dashing nature to them. He's very French in that
he takes himself extremely seriously, no joking around. He had a.
Speaker 6 (10:33):
Mission to accomplish. He accomplished it in Marseille with.
Speaker 7 (10:36):
Drug connection traffickers, and then when Prince Albert called him
in to basically become the Pink Panther connection guy in Monaco.
Speaker 6 (10:44):
I mean he rose to the occasion.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
And Malberge's brainchild.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
This Pink Panther task force is a serious response to
what he knows is a serious issue. Less than a
year into his appointment, the Pink Panthers struck the Cerebelli
Jewelry store in Monte Carlos Casino Square, despite the presence
of some four hundred close circuit cameras.
Speaker 6 (11:06):
It's a huge embarrassment to Monaco.
Speaker 7 (11:08):
I just finished discussing how much of really a police
security state Monico is, how the surveillance is unbelievable there,
so the fact that the Pink Panthers could pull off
a heist there under the nose of Prince Albert and
people who paid millions to live in a place they
think is secure.
Speaker 6 (11:27):
They had to have this task force.
Speaker 7 (11:29):
So the citizenry wouldn't, you know, basically rise up in arms.
I mean, you pay a premium to live in Monaco
for number one, so you don't have to pay taxes,
and number two so you can feel safe. So it's
highly embarrassing to have these Eastern European thieves just walk.
Speaker 6 (11:46):
In and steal jewels.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
So they had.
Speaker 7 (11:49):
To do something to make people think that they're really
doing something, and I think he obviously was.
Speaker 6 (11:54):
He was a top level guy.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
And for a while. Andrew Marlberge is a smashing success.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
In two thousand and eight, he manages to arrest Pink
Panther Dousko Poznan. A car happens to run over Dushko's
foot while he's standing on a Monaco street corner. He
is taken to the hospital recognized from an interpal red
notice photo and summarily arrested.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
The arrest sparks speculation that Malberge.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Had staged the accident to sweep the panther off the
streets and into custody. Malberge himself denied it, but it
was suspiciously bad luck for duschcom. In two thousand and nine,
Marlberge helps track down another pink Panther who had dropped
that luxury watch store in Monaco two years earlier. They
(12:46):
trace him to the Sketchy Hotel in Paris, where Detective
erve Konon makes the arrest. That same year, Marlberge's team
catches three other pink Panthers in the parking lot of
a Monaco casino the night before their plan jewelheist. This
is all welcome news for the people of Monaco. Not
to mention Marlberge's boss, the Prince, but chief Inspector. Under
(13:09):
Malbersjet would end up making some dangerous enemies and some
dangerous friends.
Speaker 7 (13:27):
What happened to Andre Milberger is a sort of quintessential
Monico's story.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Incidentally, Dana Kennedy pronounces his name Mulberger. Others he's the
French Malberjet.
Speaker 7 (13:38):
On one hand, Mulberger was a good guy and that
he got down on the Pink Panthers and was well
known for making arrest there.
Speaker 6 (13:48):
But the fact that.
Speaker 7 (13:49):
He had Russian ties is absolutely unfortunately or fortunately completely
business as usual in Monaco Russians.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
The plot thickens.
Speaker 6 (14:00):
There are a ton of Russians in Monaco.
Speaker 7 (14:03):
They have enormous influence.
Speaker 6 (14:05):
There are billionaires.
Speaker 7 (14:07):
From Russia who have Monaco residency because obviously they don't
pay income taxes.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Marlbersham defended his socializing with the wealthy Russians of monacom
in an interview with French Vanity Fair, saying, I quote, yes,
I hang out with Russians, So is it forbidden they're rich?
Does that necessarily make the mafia? They're men of my generation.
They have studied in the United States, in London or Switzerland.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
Why should we stop talking to them? End of quote.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
But Marlberge's defensive stance tells us that he saw how
these friendships might have an effect on his carefully honed
sterling reputation as an incorruptible cop.
Speaker 7 (14:50):
The problem is the fact that he had.
Speaker 6 (14:53):
A lot of suspect.
Speaker 7 (14:54):
Russian and Eastern European friends himself, means that we don't
know if he was in Raley guy or what I mean.
Everything is very murky in Monaco for a reason. There's
way too much money and way too many people who
got their money in mysterious ways for anybody to ever
totally see what's going on, and the amount of skullduggery
(15:16):
and corruption is kind of off the charts there. Prince Albert,
since the death of his father in two thousand and five,
has really tried to clean up Monico's image, and he
succeeded in many ways.
Speaker 6 (15:28):
But it's still true.
Speaker 7 (15:29):
It's still a funny place for shady people, and Neilburger
is right up there with.
Speaker 6 (15:34):
The shady people.
Speaker 7 (15:34):
And the fact that he had Russian friends and he
had a Russian girlfriend is kind of part for the course.
Speaker 6 (15:40):
It's not unusual.
Speaker 7 (15:41):
What would be unusual if you had a Monaco cop
with no ties.
Speaker 6 (15:45):
However, to that world.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Okay, so Mobajet made friends with some Russians, but he
also made one series enemy.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
My name is Robert Earinger, and I have a forty
five year background in what I call the information business,
and that encompasses journalism as well as intelligence.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
The recording you'll hear of our interview with Robert Erainger
is not of the highest quality. He insisted on being
recorded only over the phone.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
I was an investigative reporter for a British newspapers through
the nineteen eighties. In the nineteen nineties I did private
sector intelligence, and in two thousand and two I was
retained by Prince Albert Monaco to be his intelligence advisor.
At that time, the Prince was the hereditary Prince, meaning
he wasn't the ruling Prince yet. In two thousand and
(16:39):
five he became the ruling Prince when his father, Prince Rani,
had passed, and at that time I created for Albert
the unofficial Monaco Intelligence Service.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
We should say from the outset that Erringer, who once
had a close connection to Prince Albert, has been on
the outs with him ever since he left Monaco.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
In two thousand and seven.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
That he sued the Prince for breach of contract, claiming
that he was not paid for his final invoice, and
Prince Albert filed a number of lawsuits against Erringer for
defamation in his gossipy blog posts. The subject of one
of those lawsuits was actually Andra Marlbershe. But let's go
back to a happier time in the relationship between Robert
(17:23):
Erainger and Prince Albert of Monaco.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
We got to know each other in the late nineteen
eighties when I lived in Monaco for a couple of years.
Thereafter I moved to Washington and he got involved in
intelligence work.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
I let him know what I was doing.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
He was rather intrigued, and when he had a question
one day about a particular Russian who wanted to invest
in Monico's football team, he asked me to investigate the
background of that individual. I did discover that he was dirty.
I then pointed out to Albert that the Russian influence
in the south of France was deafening, and that it
(17:59):
was expected the Russian influence would expand and try to
move into Monaco.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Its two president inclusion, had indeed.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
Fixated on Monaco as a fabulous place from which to
lauder money and conduct intelligence operations.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Russian oligarchs were looking for new places to park their money,
and Monaco, with its friendly tax laws, seemed perfect. Erringer
claims he predicted that this influx of Russian money would
bring more crime and corruption to Monoco, and off the
back of that, he says, he sold his services to
(18:34):
Prince Albert.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
In June two thousand and two. He retained meaning to
be his intelligence advisor and keep an eye on the
Russians who were trying to muscle their way into Monaco,
along with other seating characters who were attempting to penetrate.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
The royal court. That is, Albert forman.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Erranger was in the position to run his own show
until Andrew Marlberger arrived.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
Andre Muhlberget arrived from France at a very opportune moment.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
If I met him soon after.
Speaker 5 (19:06):
He became police chief, it should have been a time
when he could have done very very well there, because
by that time, my service to Albert and the unofficial
intelligence service we created had put together a blueprint of
everything that was going wrong in Monaco with regard to
money laundering and corruption and Russian influence. I think it
bothered Malberge quite a bit of an American was running
(19:30):
Albert's intelligence when he felt that it should be his role,
and he was jealous of the relationship I had with
Albert and wanted that for himself.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
So although he pretended to.
Speaker 5 (19:40):
Be a friend and supporter of.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
What we were doing.
Speaker 5 (19:44):
It later appeared to me that he was working behind
the scenes against us.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Robert Eranger thought he was suddenly in a power struggle.
Speaker 5 (19:53):
Mouhlberge tried to make that look like I was stepping
on the toes of his police department and feeling there information,
so he would do things. I'd go to Albert and
complain that I was taking information out of their files
and calling it our own, which was actually quite incorrect.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
But Erringer doesn't think Marlbajet started out corrupt, if in
fact he was ever corrupted.
Speaker 5 (20:14):
In my opinion, he came to Monaco with good intentions,
at least that's the feeling I had when I first
met him, and I think he actually wanted to act
on some of the information. But I believe he got
neutered by the powers that be in Monaco, the ministers,
especially the chief judicial officer, who was terribly corrupt himself.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Rangers says these Monaco officials warned Marlbergjet to back off,
to stop his investigations.
Speaker 5 (20:42):
In our last meeting, he seemed rather upset me. He said,
they want me only to direct traffic.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
And so I think at some.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
Stage, he thought, well, obviously I can't investigate crime and
they don't want me to, so I might as well
just become part of it.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
And I believe that that's exactly what happened.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
Eventually.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
Chief Inspector Marlberje did make friends with some Russians, but
it was his relationship with a former beauty queen from
Belarus that would be his downfall.
Speaker 5 (21:12):
I mean, you have to talk about the circumstances under
which he had to leave his job as police chief.
He did not resign. He was fired after it was
exposed that he had a relationship with a beauty queen
from Belarus and had been discovered to have been coboarding
with her on a boat, and those photographs came out.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
He was married.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
He was disgraced when Ranger says it was exposed regarding
Marlbach's affair with the beauty queen and that the quote
photos came out, What he means is that he Ranger
posted the photos of Marlberje on vacation with a woman
on his blog and created a scandal that consumed Monaco
(21:54):
and much of Europe. The photos, he says, were sent
to him by some unnamed source.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
He tried to save his job. He went to see
Prince Albert and couldn't do it.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
Prince Albert did not take the scandal well.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Malbergem was informed that he had to find an elegant
way to resign. An official press release announced his departure,
saying he was starting a new career in.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
The private sector.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
In late June twenty thirteen, Malbergem meets some friends at
Camp Dye, a popular beach just west of Monaco.
Speaker 7 (22:41):
I know where he was because I've been there myself.
It's the one town over for Monica, one of the
most gorgeous beaches in that area of the French and
Monica Riviera. It's kind of a little hidden gem. The
locals know it, tourists don't know it, which makes it
all bit better. And he was there for lunch, and
he was very tight with certain Russians. He had Russian friends,
(23:03):
he had a Russian girlfriend, and there was a yacht
that some of his Russian friends were on.
Speaker 6 (23:09):
And I don't know if he was dared to go
out swim to the yacht or not, because people do
that a lot.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
He's with this group of Russians. They go to a
lunch spot and cap Die. I've been there. I know
how it works. You park your boat out in the
water and then you shuttle in.
Speaker 5 (23:24):
He has a long three hour lunch in which he's
applied with booze.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
They know what a mancho guy he is.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
Aaron Aja shim you can't swim out to that boat,
and moul Briget, being an arrogant prick full of bravado,
does sho.
Speaker 7 (23:41):
I mean, everybody travels by yacht in this area, and
it's really typical to be on a yacht and pull
up a certain place for lunch.
Speaker 6 (23:50):
I don't know how.
Speaker 7 (23:50):
Far the boat was, but it's not unusual to go
swim out to a boat.
Speaker 6 (23:55):
It happens all the time. But this time when he
was swimming out to the boat.
Speaker 7 (24:00):
This high level, prestigious, just retired police investigator was swimming
out to me his friends on the yacht, and somehow
another boat came by cut him off and he was
cut by the propeller and killed.
Speaker 6 (24:20):
I can't imagine.
Speaker 7 (24:22):
A more hideous but yet in some ways fitting death
for someone who was as powerful as this guy really
was in Monaco. I mean, he had this incredible career,
first in Marseille, French connection drug trafficking copp in Marseille.
Then he's brought to Monaco to run the Pink Panther
(24:42):
task Force. It's Prince Albert himself who appoints him, and
he does a bang up job. And just after he
retired from this incredible career, he met with a horrible
and grisly death.
Speaker 5 (24:56):
I think he may have promised things to certain Russians
that he could no longer deliver. In my opinion, he
was murdered by Russians. I don't know which Russians, so
I believe the whole thing was set up and that
when he swam out to the boat, they purposely backed
into him and he was murdered. Is it because he
was blackmailing certain Russians with information that he had possession
(25:18):
of from his job as police chief.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
I think that's one possibility.
Speaker 5 (25:23):
Another is that he had made deals with Russians that
he could no longer deliver on it because he was
no longer police chief and they wanted payback.
Speaker 7 (25:31):
So as you could just picture this, this big, strong
French police investigator swimming through the waves to meet this yacht,
to meet his friends, maybe have a drink with.
Speaker 6 (25:42):
Them on their yacht.
Speaker 7 (25:43):
He's cut down by a boat and the propeller is
thought to have slice the back of his head and
almost severed.
Speaker 6 (25:53):
One of his legs.
Speaker 7 (25:54):
I mean, you can't even a matt You couldn't write
the script for the death of the man who took
on the pink Panthers in the South of France.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Investigators could never confirm whether another boat struck Malberge or
of the yacht he was swimming to somehow backed into him.
Whatever the truth behind event, it was a shocking end
to Inspector Malberge.
Speaker 7 (26:22):
There are a lot of incredibly crazy stories that happen
in Monaco. Monaco and the South of France are run
on myth, They're run on fantasy.
Speaker 6 (26:33):
The local press.
Speaker 7 (26:34):
Is really controlled by the local powers, and they're not
going to spend too much time looking into any of this.
Speaker 6 (26:41):
They don't want people to get too deep into the
dark side.
Speaker 7 (26:46):
But the dark side of Monaco is always there, and
it has been there for centuries. So this poor police
chief's downfall in many ways, people see as just another
side of the dark side of Monaco.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Andra Malberje may have gotten on the wrong side of
the wrong people and pay the price, but his pursuit
of the Ping Panthers had proven highly effective. Dushko Poznan,
one of the members of the Dubai team, arrested, three
other Ping Panthers and an aborted highest of a Monaco
casino arrested, and Milan Lipuya arrested for the Liechtenstein job
(27:25):
and the highst at the Waffe Mall. Thanks to Marlberje's
efforts to involve inter Paul, Milan would face justice, even
if Malberje would face a grisly and on a beautiful
beach just.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
West of Monaco.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Coming up next on Infamous International, the Pink Panthers story.
Speaker 6 (27:48):
Yepuya trying to live a quiet life.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Let's say, after what happened in Dubai, he got married,
he got a dog, he got another dog for his
mom and sister, the.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
Return of the Pink Panther Milan le Poya.
Speaker 8 (28:02):
These guys were linked some other revenue, and they understood
now it's time to move to Cocainsmith.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
The criminal world of Niche is changing and things are
getting dangerous.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Organizing is very similar to organizing a murder as well.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
And the Pink Panthers discover how hard it is to
keep your hands clean in a dirty world of international crime.
Speaker 9 (28:26):
They got involved in this open ward that flipped the
whole Balkan underworld.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
That's next time on Infamous International. The Pink Panthers Story.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
Infamous International.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
The Pink Panthers Story was produced by Best Case Studios
in association with Kodas story hosted by me Natalia ant
Lava and written by Katrina wolf Adam Pinkis, Suzanne Myers,
and David Markowitz, with help from Brent Katz and Matt Levin.
For Best Case Studios Executive producer Adam Pinkis, Senior producer
(29:14):
David Markowitz, Producer Katrina Wolfe, Associate producer Hannah Libovitz, Lockhart,
and consulting producers Julie Goldstein and Louis Spiegeler. For Koda Story,
reporting by Lane Greenberg with associate producer Rebecca Robinson. Edited
and sound designed by Gaylan Mullins and Max Michael Miller.
(29:36):
Music by Dave Harrington. Archival producers Mark Degra.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
And Paul Dallas.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
This has been an Exactly Wright production. Executive producers Karen
Kilgareth Georgia hart Stark and Daniel Kramer, with consulting producer
Kyle Ryan,
Host
Natalia Antelava
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