Prince Albert's spymaster, Robert Eringer, traveled to Washington DC and, on February 25th, 2003, met with Dave Szady, Assistant Director, Counterintelligence, and his deputy, Tim Bereznay, in Szady's office at the J. Edgar Hoover Building.
Eringer briefed both men on the investigation underway by the Prince's intelligence apparatus into MING and provided a written report.
"We'll look into it and get back to you," said Bereznay, a quiet man with a firm eye grip and a background in Soviet-arena counterintelligence.
Just under a month later, on March 18th, Eringer met Prince Albert in Monaco to confirm arrangements for him to meet FBI Director Robert Mueller III in Washington.
On April 25th the Prince flew into Washington-Reagan Airport on his father's new Falcon 2000 jet, an eight-and-a-half hour flight including a refueling stop in Gander. He and Eringer rendezvoused at The Willard Hotel in advance of meeting with FBI Director Mueller, for which Eringer provided talking points: 1) The Prince will one day reign as Sovereign of Monaco; 2) The Prince is concerned about organized crime and money laundering in Monaco, especially as it pertains to Russians; 3) The Prince would welcome FBI cooperation.
Tim Bereznay collected Eringer and Prince Albert from The Willard and escorted them to Director Mueller's office, where the Prince was able to remember his talking points.
That evening, the Prince and his spymaster dined in the private room of a Spanish restaurant in downtown Washington.
Their hosts: Senior officers from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS).
Purpose: To open unofficial contact.
Much to the dismay of CIA, Prince Albert permitted two of his buddies to attend the dinner meeting. Later, when the agency ran checks, they were horrified to discover that one of the Prince's friends had spent a year in prison for his role as bagman to Maryland's corrupt governor, Marvin Mandel.
The Prince departed with his two chums early, at ten o'clock, so he could visit a striptease-club in Baltimore owned by his ex-con friend.
Eringer remained behind to cement liaison relationships with both special services.
Coming Next: Bedlam Briefing