Thierry Lacoste, a Paris lawyer and former close friend and legal adviser to His Serene Highness Prince Albert II, has been taken into police custody in Monaco as part of an investigation involving allegations of corruption and influence peddling.
Lacoste presented himself to Monaco police on Wednesday, September 2, and remained in custody on Thursday as investigators continued their questioning. His detention was first reported by Monaco-Matin and was subsequently reported by Le Figaro, which said AFP had confirmed the development through judicial sources. Lacoste’s Paris law firm has also confirmed that he was in Monaco answering investigators’ questions.
At the centre of the latest inquiry is a complaint by Monaco property developer Patrice Pastor and, in particular, the long-running Esplanade des Pêcheurs affair. According to Le Figaro, Lacoste’s firm said Monaco police were investigating a complaint from Pastor relating to property projects in the Principality.
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The Esplanade des Pêcheurs development became the subject of a major legal dispute after the Monegasque State withdrew from the Port Hercule project. Monaco’s Supreme Court subsequently ordered the State to compensate developer Caroli approximately €136 million, excluding interest accruing since 2018.
As reported by Monaco-Matin, investigators are examining potential business links between Lacoste and Antonio Caroli, who died last year. Lacoste’s representatives say the lawyer intends to provide police with “all the information and explanations necessary”, but his firm has also launched a forceful counterattack against the proceedings.
In a statement, the firm accused Pastor of seeking to use Monaco’s judicial system for his own benefit and described the proceedings as an “extraordinary reversal of roles”. It argued that people who had previously sought to combat corruption were now themselves being accused of corruption or influence peddling in an attempt to silence them.
The firm went considerably further, alleging “pressure and approaches from the Princely Palace” and questioning the independence and impartiality of Monaco’s justice system. It described the context surrounding Lacoste’s questioning as one of “banana republic justice” and claimed that the proceedings were intended, in part, to strengthen the State’s position in its continuing dispute over compensation owed to Caroli.
Le Figaro, citing AFP, places the latest development within the wider judicial fallout that has followed the publication of the anonymous Dossiers du Rocher website in 2021. The website published allegations concerning several figures who were then close to Prince Albert II, including Lacoste and former Supreme Court president Didier Linotte.
According to Le Figaro, Linotte was placed under formal investigation in June 2025 for alleged unlawful taking of interests as part of an organised group and passive corruption. He was the first of the former members of the Prince’s circle named in the Dossiers du Rocher affair to be formally implicated by Monaco’s judicial authorities following the website’s appearance.
Another former senior figure, Claude Palmero, has also faced separate proceedings. Le Figaro reports that the former administrator of Crown assets was placed under formal investigation in January over an alleged breach of the confidentiality of an investigation, after documents relating to proceedings to which he was not a party were reportedly discovered during a search of his home. In March, following a complaint by the Princely Family, he was also placed under formal investigation over alleged breaches of professional confidentiality and privacy connected to articles published by Le Monde in 2024.
Meanwhile, Lacoste’s representatives told Monaco-Matin that several complaints he has filed in Monaco have either not been pursued or have been closed without further action. They say he has consequently referred matters to the French courts.
For now, the immediate focus remains on Lacoste’s questioning and the Esplanade des Pêcheurs case. His detention represents a significant new development in a complex affair that has intertwined Monaco’s judiciary, its property sector and former members of the Prince’s inner circle for several years.
Image: Matthias Mullie
