Day: 21 May 2018

Nearly one hundred guests celebrated the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle over the weekend at Stars’n’Bars and planted more than 400 trees in the process. The event was sponsored by the new non-profit Association Monaco Challenge whose goal is to  plant a tree, over time, for every  resident of Monaco – roughly 38,000 people.

On Saturday, May 19, guests watched the wedding and related festivities on a giant TV screen, re-creating a traditional “knees up” party ambiance for which the British are famous, complete with cucumber sandwiches and Pimms. An entrance fee included  a ‘tree kit’ to plant a tree and a chocolate bar which benefits the project. The Association plans to create additional “challenges” to sell tree kits and the chocolate bars will be available for sale at the Monaco bar ‘Slammers’ with the goal of having commitments to plant up to 1,000 trees in a very short time.

The challenge supports Plant for the Planet’s campaign to plant a trillion trees globally. For each tree kit sold Forest Nation will plant another tree.  Plant for the Planet has been planting trees globally since its formation by nine-year-old Felix Finkbeiner in 2008, in locations from the Philippines to Namibia.

Sponsors of the weekend event included Landmark Trust – an independent provider of trust and fiduciary services – providing the Monaco Tree Challenge tree kits and chocolate; and the St Tropez House, a leading operator in luxury villa rentals in St Tropez, and Relevance, a full service digital marketing agency expert in luxury brands – hosting the Prosecco marriage toast at the event.

Monaco has continued its close cooperation with the MONEYVAL anti-money laundering organisation by participating in a week-long training session for evaluators in Larnaca, Cyprus.

The seminar brought together nearly sixty participants from many countries, including Estonia, Poland, Cyprus, Andorra, Guernsey, France, United Kingdom, Liechtenstein, Israel, Jersey, Georgia, Italy, the Netherlands, but also from the European Commission.

MONEYVAL, the Committee for the Fight against Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (LCB-FT), held the event to train experts to evaluate the policies implemented and the actions carried out by the different countries belonging to the MONEYVAL Committee.

During the seminar, representatives from Financial Intelligence Units such as Monaco’s SICCFIN, but also from Police and Prosecution Services (General Prosecutor’s Office), learned how to evaluate existing anti-money laundering and  financing of terrorism policies already in place.

The seminar was attended by Jean-Marc Gualandi, Technical Advisor to SICCFIN. The sessions was also attended by Lia Umans, FATF, Michael Stellini, Deputy Executive Secretary of MONEYVAL Committee, Yehuda Shaffer, former Deputy Attorney General of Israel John Ringguth, an eminent British jurist, former member of the London Crown Prosecution Service and former Executive Secretary of the Moneyval Committee, and Richard Walker, Director of Financial Crime Policy, Guernsey.

By taking part, SICCFIN, Monaco’s own financial control organisation, demonstrated the Principality’s commitment to the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

AS Monaco’s away 3-0 win against Troyes on Saturday, May 19, club Vice President Vadim Vasilyev said that manager Leonardo Jardim will most definitely stay at the Principality side.

“My dream is for Leonardo Jardim to become the Ferguson of AS Monaco. He feels good, he is very happy at Monaco, we are very happy to have him, he is under contract and so will remain our manager,” he said.

While Troyes now drop to Ligue 2, the win for Monaco confirms the club’s second place in France’s Liogue 1 and a place in the Champios’ League next season. Jardim has managed Monaco from 2014. Last season Monaco won the French Ligue 1, a full eight points ahead of arch-rivals Paris Saint Germain.