In Monaco on October 9th (2002), Prince Albert's spymaster Robert Eringer was introduced to two Cuban dignitaries: Angel Dalmau Fernandez, deputy minister for foreign affairs, and Eumelio Caballero-Rodriguez, ambassador to France. They had hosted Prince Albert's visit to Cuba a few years earlier; their chief Monaco contact, they told Eringer as they toured the principality, was a member of Monaco's prominent Pastor family--and this duo was mining Monaco for moneyed persons who wished to invest in Havana's growing tourism industry.

That evening at 6:30, accompanied by Piers, Eringer met the Prince. Their two-hour briefing-in suite 906 of Hotel Columbus-began with MING. After presenting the facts, Eringer postulated his hypothesis:

Who paid for the MING-organized Russian trade delegation conference in Monaco in 1992? Not MING, who supposedly "retired broke." The Russians paid. Why?

Why would the Russians subsidize MING and trust him with their wallets-he, an admitted former U.S. military intelligence officer? And how did the Russians even know him?

Was it possible at some stage of his military intelligence career-say, in Germany-the KGB recruited MING? By creating business opportunities for MING in Monaco, were the Russians helping him "legitimize" possible earnings from espionage? Also, would the Russians view his influential contacts in the principality as a conduit for transforming Monaco into their own money laundering and espionage hub?

Was it possible that Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer stationed near MING in Germany, had personally recruited MING?

Fascinated, the Prince authorized Eringer to further ingratiate himself into MING's existence with two possible objectives: 1) Turn MING and entice him to reveal his Russian money laundering contacts. 2) Furnish the dossier on MING to the FBI.

Also on their agenda that evening: a pair of brothers from New Zealand who were using Monaco as headquarters for a commodity trading enterprise that was not legally registered to conduct business in the principality.

Coming Next: Operation Spook